River
Gave de Pau River
193 km from source to mouth · France.
FranceFlows into Adour
In numbers
Length
193km
Average flow
82m³/s
Basin
14,805km²
Drop
317m
from 315 m to -2 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
193 km of river and 20 stops on the way: 20 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmGavarnie Cirqueat 315 m
- 0 kmBarbazan-Debat3,399 people
- 1 kmOdos3,451 people
- 2 kmSoues3,192 people
- 4 kmSéméac4,999 people
- 5 kmAureilhan7,859 people
- 6 kmTarbes52,106 people
- 22 kmVic-en-Bigorre5,375 people
- 76 kmAire-sur-l'Adour6,215 people
- 107 kmSaint-Sever4,913 people
- 159 kmSaint-Paul-lès-Dax11,839 people
- 159 kmDax22,305 people
- 186 kmCauneille804 people
- 186 kmPort-de-Lanne1,232 people
- 188 kmSainte-Marie-de-Gosse1,241 people
- 190 kmOrthevielle1,073 people
- 191 kmPeyrehorade3,700 people
- 191 kmHastingues609 people
- 191 kmSorde-l'Abbaye645 people
- 191 kmSaint-Cricq-du-Gave445 people
- 191 kmSames709 people
- 193 kmAdourat -2 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River of South-Western France
At the mouth it carries 82 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 30 seconds. It drops from 315 m to -2 m, 1.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 14,805 km², about the size of TL. 855,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- TarbesLargest city on its banks · 52,106 people
- Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport (LDE)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 9 km from the cityCar hire at LDE airport (Tarbes/Lourdes/Pyrénées)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water13 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Gave de Pau River, month by month
Highest water: from December to February
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 92 m³/s in the lowest month to 480 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
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The basin
Gave de Pau River: the basin in numbers
14,706 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 855,000people live in the basin
- 58/km²people per km²
- 428maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,000mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.1°Caverage air temperature
- 17%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 48% Forest
- 29% Cropland
- 15% Pasture
- 2% 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
Gave de Pau River: what you find on the way
- 71Weirs
- 1Locks
- 11Boat rampsZone d'embarquement por canoë, Cale du Hayaou and 9 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
Gave de Pau River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
AdourFrance308 km350 m³/sTributaries (19)
Also: Ouzoum, Baïse de Lasseube, Ousse, Béez, Gave de Cauterets, Laà, Néez, Gave d'Azun, Ousse des Bois, Geü, Les Hiès, Luz, Luzoué, Laulouze, Géüle, Lagoin, Mouscle, Néez, Soust
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
SpainWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q855193) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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 |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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