River
Mayenne
202 km from source to mouth · France.
FranceFlows into Maine
In numbers
Length
202km
Average flow
50m³/s
Basin
5,820km²
Drop
138m
from 138 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
202 km of river and 26 stops on the way: 25 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmMont des Avaloirsat 138 m
- 0 kmLalacelle263 people
- 0 kmPré-en-Pail-Saint-Samson2,273 people
- 75 kmCoulaines7,912 people
- 77 kmLe Mans144,515 people
- 82 kmAllonnes11,949 people
- 87 kmArnage5,991 people
- 101 kmLa Suze-sur-Sarthe3,767 people
- 147 kmSablé-sur-Sarthe14,734 people
- 173 kmDaon543 people
- 173 kmLa Jaille-Yvon343 people
- 173 kmChambellay411 people
- 173 kmChenillé-Champteussé336 people
- 174 kmLes Hauts-d'Anjou8,751 people
- 179 kmTiercé3,936 people
- 182 kmMontreuil-sur-Maine804 people
- 182 kmThorigné-d'Anjou1,223 people
- 191 kmLe Lion-d'Angers5,390 people
- 191 kmFeneu2,212 people
- 191 kmLonguenée-en-Anjou6,571 people
- 191 kmGrez-Neuville1,447 people
- 192 kmCantenay-Épinard2,415 people
- 192 kmMontreuil-Juigné7,808 people
- 194 kmÉcouflant3,894 people
- 200 kmAngers159,022 people
- 202 kmLac de Maine0.9 km²
- 202 kmMaine-et-Loire833,776 people
- 202 kmMaineat 0 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 50 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 50 seconds. It drops from 138 m to 0 m, 0.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 5,820 km², about the size of BN. 1.5 million 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
- Maine-et-LoireLargest city on its banks · 833,776 people
- Nantes Atlantique Airport (NTE)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 83 km from the cityCar hire at NTE airport (Nantes)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water64 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Mayenne, month by month
Highest water: from December to February
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 54 m³/s in the lowest month to 300 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
Mayenne: the basin in numbers
22,108 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 66/km²people per km²
- 128maverage altitude of the basin
- 698mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.7°Caverage air temperature
- 17%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 50% Cropland
- 18% 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
Mayenne: what you find on the way
- 79WeirsBarrage des Forges, Barrage de Trotté, Barrage d'Antoigné and 76 more
- 40LocksLa Sarthe, Écluse de Fercé, Écluse de Malicorne and 37 more
- 1Waterfalls
- 46Boat rampsCale de Mise à l'Eau, canoe kayak (Passage du barrage) and 44 more
- 2Ferry piers
- 12MarinasLe Port du Mans, Port du Houssay, Halte Fluviale and 9 more
- 1River beachesPlage des Sablières
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Mayenne 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lac de Mainekm 2110.9km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mont des Avaloirs1.1 km away416m
- Butte Chaumont8.1 km away378m
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
Mayenne in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (11)
Also: Ouette, Jouanne, Oudon, Colmont, Ernée, Varenne, Vicoin, Aisne, Aron, Gourbe, Vée
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q280650) · 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 | Lakeyas, 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.



