Ardèche River

The Ardèche is a 120 km long river in south-central France. Its source is in the Massif Central, near the village of Astet. It flows into the Rhône River near Pont-Saint-Esprit, north-west of Orange.

The valley of the Ardèche is very scenic, in particular a 30km section known as the Ardèche Gorges. The walls of the river here are up to 300m high topped by limestone cliffs. A kayak and camping trip down the gorge is not technically difficult and hugely popular in the summer, so much so that control of numbers is becoming a headache for park authorities. The most famous feature is a natural 60m stone arch spanning the river simply known as Pont d'Arc (arch bridge).

Towns along the river

The Ardèche flows through the following départements and towns:

• Ardèche (named after the river): Astet, Vals-les-Bains, Aubenas, Ruoms, Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche
• Lozère
• Gard: Pont-Saint-Esprit.

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ardèche River".