No.
The “lake” is a low white (probably plaster covered), garden wall, like DCnDC said. There is no real trickery. Once you see it, it is clear enough. I think the illusion is probably just an unintentional fluke that someone happened to notice. The sun is highlighting the top of the wall, and this is what looks like a beach on the far side of the lake. What looks like water is the nearer side of the wall, in shade.
There’s a clever little gif here that shows the wall to be a wall. I actually gasped and lol’ed. It’s amazing how much it looks like water until it doesn’t. 
http://www.moillusions.com/2010/06/house-beside-the-lake-erm-wall.html
And once you see that it’s a wall, it’s almost impossible to make it look like a lake again.
I actually typed “raccoon” originally and then second-guessed myself, thinking those were foxes. Oh well, looks like I should have stuck with raccoon. The color threw me off.
Here’s a different stucco wall for comparison.
Tell your eyes to stop color correcting the wall to be more the color of water. It’s not a natural color for water. Also, it’s not reflecting the mountains or sky.
“du l’herbe” = “of the grass”. The whole sentence is “On voit du l’herbe” = literally “One sees of the grass” , more smoothly translated as “people see the grass”.
Another clue is the size of the trees. When you consider how large they would have to be in order to have their apparent size if they were on the opposite shore of the lake, you realize they can’t be as far away as they appear. So you realize what you’re actually seeing are trees that are just on the other side of a nearby wall.
You’re right. Thank you!
What am I supposed to be seeing in picture #5? All I see is a towel draped over a rail.
The shadow on the wall looks like the silhouette of a face.
nm
Try the Oregon Vortex on for size:
At the Ohio state fair once they had a water company advertisement and a spout was susoended in air with water coming out of it.
What it was , there was a clear tube in the middle and a spout on top and when the water rushed out (hiding the spout) it appeared as the spout was suspended in air, neat.
I’ve seen that too at various county fairs in Ca.
Here’s a fountain in a public place built on the same theme.
That is very cool. I’m kind of embarrassed at how long it took me to figure out how it was being done.
In the pic I linked, you can actually see the tube going up the middle. The one’s I’ve seen at county fairs (at a booth hawking some brand of bottled water, I forget which brand) did a better illusion. Maybe it all has to do with the ambient lighting.
ETA: Gaah! They’re all over the place! Here’s a page with a compendium of photos of fountains like this from all over!
Armed with this auditory illusion, now go listen to Lady Gaga’s Poker Face.
A, well done, variation of an Ames room.
CMC fnord!
