River
Ardèche
125 km from source to mouth · France.
FranceFlows into Rhône
In numbers
Length
125km
Average flow
65m³/s
Basin
2,430km²
Drop
299m
from 340 m to 41 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
125 km of river and 18 stops on the way: 16 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmMonts du Vivaraisat 340 m
- 20 kmPont du Diable (Thuyets)
- 20 kmThueyts1,205 people
- 31 kmLalevade-d'Ardèche1,156 people
- 36 kmVals-les-Bains3,777 people
- 37 kmLabégude1,395 people
- 41 kmAubenas13,134 people
- 43 kmVesseaux1,350 people
- 43 kmSaint-Privat1,508 people
- 48 kmSaint-Étienne-de-Fontbellon2,543 people
- 52 kmSaint-Sernin1,224 people
- 53 kmLachapelle-sous-Aubenas1,350 people
- 74 kmRuoms2,241 people
- 77 kmChassezactributary
- 86 kmVallon-Pont-d'Arc2,337 people
- 112 kmSaint-Julien-de-Peyrolas1,206 people
- 114 kmSaint-Just-d'Ardèche1,238 people
- 117 kmSaint-Paulet-de-Caisson1,745 people
- 124 kmPont-Saint-Esprit10,002 people
- 125 kmRhôneat 41 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in France
At the mouth it carries 65 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 38 seconds. It drops from 340 m to 41 m, 2.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,430 km², about the size of RE. 8.9 million people live in it. Highest water: from November to December; lowest: August. Its dams hold back little of its water (6.8% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- AubenasLargest city on its banks · 13,134 people
- Avignon Caumont airport (AVN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 89 km from the cityCar hire at FNI airport (Nîmes/Garons)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water28 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe36 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to AugustThe best months to visit
Ardèche, month by month
Highest water: from November to December
Lowest water: August. Best months to visit: from May to August.
From about 790 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,900 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Ardèche: the basin in numbers
72,972 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 8.9millionpeople live in the basin
- 126/km²people per km²
- 770maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,055mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 8.3°Caverage air temperature
- 19%protected areas
- 1.1%covered by lakes
- 1%glaciers
- 2%permafrost
- 3.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 46% Forest
- 19% Cropland
- 22% Pasture
- 6% Towns and cities
- 1% Ice
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Ardèche: what you find on the way
- 19WeirsLa Roubine, Ardèche Km 66,4, Moulin de Sampzon and 16 more
- 3WaterfallsCascade de Pissevieille
- 33RapidsRapide de Pradons, Rapide des Blachas, Rapide des Branches and 30 more
- 3Canoe put-insVals-les-Bains
- 13Boat rampsDébarcadère de Sauze and 12 more
- 6River beachesCamping Le Ventadour Ardeche, Plage du Cirque de Gens, La Châtaigneraie and 3 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Ardèche in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
39mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (39)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Les Valadous5.1 km away1,548m
- serre de la Croix de Bauzons5.0 km away1,548m
- Rocher d'Abraham9.3 km away1,498m
- Tanargue9.3 km away1,511m
- Suc de Bauzon10 km away1,472m
- Montalafia5.0 km away
- Serre du Brugeas4.6 km away
- Serre de la Pialade5.3 km away
31 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Ardèche in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
RhôneFrance812 km1,800 m³/sTributaries (9)
Also: Chassezac, Volane, Auzon, Beaume, Fontolière, Ibie, Ligne, Lignon, Luol
SwitzerlandNearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q640263) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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