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River

Essonne

97 km from source to mouth · France.

FranceFranceFlows into Seine

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

97km

Average flow

8.4m³/s

Basin

1,870km²

Drop

70m

from 108 m to 38 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

97 km of river and 23 stops on the way: 21 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

108 m38 m
Sourceat 108 m0 km
Pithiviers9,659 people12 km
Rimardetributary31 km
Malesherbes6,335 people43 km
Maisse2,776 people56 km
Boutigny-sur-Essonne3,171 people61 km
Ballancourt-sur-Essonne7,001 people76 km
Juinetributary77 km
Ormoy1,311 people90 km
Seineat 38 m97 km
02040608097 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 108 m
  2. 7 kmPithiviers-le-Vieil1,952 people
  3. 11 kmDadonville2,014 people
  4. 12 kmPithiviers9,659 people
  5. 31 kmRimardetributary
  6. 43 kmMalesherbes6,335 people
  7. 56 kmMaisse2,776 people
  8. 61 kmBoutigny-sur-Essonne3,171 people
  9. 70 kmCerny3,365 people
  10. 70 kmLa Ferté-Alais4,051 people
  11. 72 kmBaulne1,453 people
  12. 75 kmItteville5,650 people
  13. 76 kmBallancourt-sur-Essonne7,001 people
  14. 77 kmJuinetributary
  15. 80 kmVert-le-Petit2,561 people
  16. 81 kmVert-le-Grand2,014 people
  17. 87 kmMennecy14,646 people
  18. 89 kmVillabé5,090 people
  19. 90 kmOrmoy1,311 people
  20. 93 kmSaintry-sur-Seine5,308 people
  21. 96 kmCorbeil-Essonnes40,527 people
  22. 97 kmSaint-Pierre-du-Perray6,140 people
  23. 97 kmSaint-Germain-lès-Corbeil7,481 people
  24. 97 kmÉtiolles2,788 people
  25. 97 kmSeineat 38 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 8.4 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 297 seconds. It drops from 108 m to 38 m, 0.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,870 km², about the size of GP. 246,000 people live in it. Highest water: from November to January. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • Corbeil-EssonnesLargest city on its banks · 40,527 people
  • Paris-Orly Airport (ORY)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 17 km from the cityCar hire at ORY airport (Paris)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit

Essonne, month by month

Highest water: from November to January

Best months to visit: from May to September.

19
3°54 mmJan
16
4°47 mmFeb
12
8°49 mmMar
8.3
11°45 mmApr
9.2
14°60 mmMay
7.5
17°56 mmJun
5.4
19°53 mmJul
4.6
19°52 mmAug
7.2
16°55 mmSep
11
12°56 mmOct
16
7°57 mmNov
18
4°54 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 4.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 19 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

Essonne: the basin in numbers

1,958 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 246,000people live in the basin
  • 125/km²people per km²
  • 119maverage altitude of the basin
  • 645mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 10.8°Caverage air temperature
  • 18%protected areas

What covers the basin

  • 3% Forest
  • 60% Cropland
  • 1% Pasture
  • 7% Towns and cities

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

Essonne: what you find on the way

  • 8WeirsAncien Moulin Paleau and 7 more
  • 6LocksÉcluse n°7 du Coudray and 5 more
  • 1Boat ramps
  • 2MarinasPort Saintry, Port Autonome d'Evry

From OpenStreetMap, within 1.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Essonne: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Essonne: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth10 km across

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

Essonne in pictures

Essonne-rivière
Rowing · CC BY-SA 3.0
Essonne @ Boigneville 01
Rémih · CC BY-SA 4.0
Essonne @ Boigneville 02
Rémih · CC BY-SA 4.0
Essonne près Moulin Mirebeau Malesherbes Malesherbois 1
Chabe01 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q534813) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every source and licence is on the data sources page.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

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