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The Avenières Plain is a vast glacial valley bottom filled in by recent deposits from the Rhône and in the midst of which there is a ground moraine: the "isle" of Avenières.

The boundaries are clear: to the northeast are the reliefs of Bugey and to the southwest the hills of the Basses Terres and the N 75, but there is no significant road system cutting up this entity, whose rural character is gradually fading amidst diffuse residential build-up.

The Rhône plain looks like a sea of poplar trees . It is difficult to reach the river's islands and meanders, and sweeping views are impeded by the barriers of poplar groves. The plain is drained by a complex system of barely visible canals and ditches, and is used for farming wherever it is not too wet and been set aside for the poplar trees.

To find a calm, more pleasant and welcoming ambience, one must go to the Avenières hill and the small hills to the south. Here the architecture is mainly traditional, with box-like clay homes with roofs of clay tiles with rounded edges ("tuiles à écailles"), which gives the area a rural feeling. Nevertheless, the dwellings are spread haphazardly along the roads, undermining the visibility and coherence of the landscape.

The same phenomenon is found on the southern hillsides. Between Corbelin and Thuellin along N75, linear urbanisation has deprived the roadway of even opening onto the plain landscapes, and this type of urbanisation has also affected the other roads. Nevertheless, Veyrins-Thuellin, Thuellin and Vézéronce-Curtin have maintained their homogeneity, and Morestel is distinctive for its church and for the 12th century square keep that dominates the city. Here was the birthplace of the 19th century painting school that brought together Carrand, Guiguet, Fontanesi, Reignier and Romagnol, around the most famous member of the school, François-Auguste Ravier (1814-1895). Ravier, a frequent visitor to the Ile Crémieu, painted subtle variations of the characteristic lighting of the landscapes, which were virtually deserted in his time. They have been transformed today by urbanisation.

Thus in the Avenières plain is found the same phenomenon as in most of the Isère alluvial plains, where the landscape has been closed by the closure of the open continuities indispensable for its legibility, due to the growth of vegetation and urbanisation. Controlling this requires a determined policy of developing new models for land use and maintenance.