River
Rance
102 km from source to mouth · France.
FranceFlows into English Channel
In numbers
Length
102km
Average flow
17m³/s
Basin
1,195km²
Drop
62m
from 62 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
102 km of river and 16 stops on the way: 11 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 62 m
- 4 kmPlumaugat1,041 people
- 11 kmQuédillac1,074 people
- 15 kmCaulnes2,320 people
- 35 kmÉvran1,561 people
- 44 kmLéhon2,708 people
- 45 kmDinan14,764 people
- 45 kmVieux pont de Dinan
- 46 kmLanvallay3,269 people
- 47 kmTaden1,909 people
- 54 kmPleudihen-sur-Rance2,618 people
- 55 kmPlouër-sur-Rance3,416 people
- 57 kmPont Saint-Hubert
- 57 kmChateaubriand Bridge
- 57 kmSaint-Malo marigraph
- 57 kmRance Tidal Power Station
- 57 kmLa Ville-ès-Nonais1,233 people
- 57 kmEnglish Channelat 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 17 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 148 seconds. It drops from 62 m to 0 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,195 km², about the size of MQ. 93,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to January. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- DinanLargest city on its banks · 14,764 people
- Rennes-Saint-Jacques Airport (RNS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 49 km from the cityCar hire at RNS airport (Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, Ille-et-Vilaine)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water21 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Rance, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 3.8 m³/s in the lowest month to 33 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
Rance: the basin in numbers
1,026 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 93,000people live in the basin
- 91/km²people per km²
- 82maverage altitude of the basin
- 749mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.0°Caverage air temperature
- 0.9%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 65% Cropland
- 8% 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
Rance: what you find on the way
- 3Weirs
- 19LocksCanal d'Ille-et-Rance, La Rance, Ecluse de Léhon and 16 more
- 17Boat rampsCale de Dinan, Cale de Taden, Cale du Petit Lyvet and 14 more
- 2MarinasPort de Lyvet, Port de Plouër-sur-Rance
- 1River beachesPlage de Vigneux
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Rance 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.
6beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
9islands off the mouthIslandyas
Beaches (6)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Plage du Mole13 km away18.1°C
- Plage de l'Éventail13 km away18.1°C
- Anse des Rivières9.0 km away · cove18.1°C
- Plage Verger19 km away18.4°C
- Anse de Dinard12 km away · cove18.1°C
- Anse des Étêtés13 km away · cove18.1°C
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mont Bel-Air4.5 km away339m
Islands off the mouth (9)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Cézembre17 km away
- Grand Bé13 km away0.1km²
- Petit Bé14 km away0.0km²
- Fort Du Guesclin18 km away
- île Agot18 km away
- île des Rimains19 km away
- île Harbour14 km away
- Île des Landes21 km away
1 more on IslandyasIslandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Rance in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (5)
Also: Routhouan, Linon, Liamou, Néal, Ruisseau de Guinejort
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1127173) · 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 | Coastya, Peakyas, Islandyas — 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.
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lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit