River
Vire
128 km from source to mouth · France and North Macedonia.
France and North MacedoniaFlows into English Channel
In numbers
Length
128km
Average flow
13m³/s
Basin
1,240km²
Drop
96m
from 95 m to -1 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
128 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 10 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmChaulieuat 95 m
- 0 kmChaulieu274 people
- 1 kmVire18,303 people
- 40 kmSainte-Marie-Outre-l'Eau124 people
- 48 kmTessy-sur-Vire1,465 people
- 63 kmCondé-sur-Vire3,114 people
- 77 kmJoignetributary
- 82 kmSaint-Lô21,722 people
- 83 kmAgneaux5,017 people
- 95 kmPont-Hébert1,769 people
- 97 kmLa Meauffe1,069 people
- 106 kmPont de Saint-Fromond
- 126 kmIsigny-sur-Mer3,137 people
- 128 kmAuretributary
- 128 kmEnglish Channelat -1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of the English Channel in France
At the mouth it carries 13 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 198 seconds. It drops from 95 m to -1 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,240 km², about the size of MQ. 100,000 people live in it. Highest water: from November to January; lowest: from July to August. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Saint-LôLargest city on its banks · 21,722 people
- Caen Carpiquet airport (CFR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 47 km from the cityCar hire at CFR airport (Caen)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water8 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Vire, month by month
Highest water: from November to January
Lowest water: from July to August. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 8.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 61 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
Vire: the basin in numbers
1,248 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 100,000people live in the basin
- 80/km²people per km²
- 132maverage altitude of the basin
- 783mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.6°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 18% Cropland
- 63% Pasture
- 3% 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
Vire: what you find on the way
- 7Weirs
- 5LocksÉcluse de Pont Farcy and 4 more
- 7Boat ramps
- 1MarinasPort de plaisance d'Isigny-sur-Mer
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.3 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
Vire in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (8)
Also: Aure, Elle, Allière, Souleuvre, Drôme, Virène, Brévogne, Joigne
Nearby
Rivers nearby
France777 km500 m³/s119 km awayOrneFrance170 km28 m³/s64 km awayCouesnonFrance98 km71 m³/s83 km awayRanceFrance102 km17 m³/s108 km awayEureFrance229 km26 m³/s156 km awayLoireFrance1,006 km840 m³/s236 km awayRiver Avon
United Kingdom96 km56 m³/s161 km awayRiver SommeFrance245 km35 m³/s219 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1346326) · 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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