River
Gardon
127 km from source to mouth · France.
FranceFlows into Rhône
In numbers
Length
127km
Average flow
32m³/s
Basin
2,200km²
Drop
233m
from 243 m to 10 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
127 km of river and 26 stops on the way: 20 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 243 m
- 10 kmSaint-Jean-du-Gard2,917 people
- 27 kmAnduze3,295 people
- 30 kmBoisset2,181 people
- 36 kmLézan1,073 people
- 40 kmRibaute-les-Tavernes1,359 people
- 45 kmGardon d'Alèstributary
- 45 kmGardon de Saint-Jeantributary
- 46 kmVézénobres1,619 people
- 62 kmMoussac1,108 people
- 66 kmSaint-Geniès-de-Malgoirès2,001 people
- 68 kmSaint-Chaptes1,282 people
- 72 kmLa Calmette1,808 people
- 85 kmSaint-Nicolas-de-Campagnac Bridge
- 85 kmBlauzac1,031 people
- 90 kmPoulx3,950 people
- 99 kmAlzontributary
- 103 kmVers-Pont-du-Gard1,786 people
- 105 kmPont du GardUNESCO World Heritage
- 107 kmCastillon-du-Gard1,078 people
- 110 kmRemoulins2,164 people
- 111 kmSernhac1,331 people
- 119 kmMeynes2,130 people
- 120 kmMontfrin3,188 people
- 121 kmGardon Viaduct
- 122 kmComps1,617 people
- 126 kmVallabrègues1,304 people
- 127 kmRhôneat 10 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in southern France
At the mouth it carries 32 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 78 seconds. It drops from 243 m to 10 m, 1.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,200 km², about the size of KM. 10.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from November to December; lowest: from July to August. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (10% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- PoulxLargest city on its banks · 3,950 people
- Nîmes-Arles-Camargue Airport (FNI)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 17 km from the cityCar hire at FNI airport (Nîmes/Garons)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water12 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe9 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to AugustThe best months to visit
Gardon, month by month
Highest water: from November to December
Lowest water: from July to August. Best months to visit: from May to August.
From about 850 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,200 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
Gardon: the basin in numbers
94,984 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 10.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 111/km²people per km²
- 793maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,019mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 8.5°Caverage air temperature
- 22%protected areas
- 0.9%covered by lakes
- 1%glaciers
- 1%permafrost
- 5.4km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 46% Forest
- 19% Cropland
- 21% Pasture
- 5% 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
Gardon: what you find on the way
- 19Weirsla Rasclausa and 18 more
- 2LocksLe Rhône - Canal de Beaucaire
- 2Waterfalls
- 3Rapids
- 6Canoe put-ins
- 9Boat rampsPortage Kayak Barrage de Vallabrègues and 8 more
- 1MarinasHalte nautique de Vallabrègues
- 14River beachesFort, La Muse, Corbières and 11 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Gardon 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.
12mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (12)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Signal de Ventalon9.9 km away1,350m
- Mont Gargo15 km away1,247m
- Pic de Borgne14 km away946m
- Montagne de Ramponenche12 km away
- Montagne du Bouges7.9 km away
- Mont Mars2.7 km away
- Le Maplas9.4 km away
- Montagne de la Vieille Morte14 km away
4 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
Gardon in pictures




Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
RhôneTributaries (6)
Also: Gardon d'Alès, Alzon, Droude, Gardon de Saint-Jean, Bourdic, Ruisseau la Braune
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q497327) · 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.