Ardèche Gorges

Ardèche Gorges
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Ardèche
Pont d'Arc over the Ardèche River.
Origin	Massif Central
Mouth	Rhône River 44°15′52″N 4°38′53″E / 44.26444, 4.64806 (Rhône-Durance)Coordinates: 44°15′52″N 4°38′53″E / 44.26444, 4.64806 (Rhône-Durance)
Basin countries	France
Length	125 km
Avg. discharge	65 m³/s
Basin area	2,430 km²

Ardèche River near Aubenas

Ardèche River Panorama

The Ardèche (Occitan: Ardecha) is a 125 km long river in south-central France, right tributary of the Rhône River. Its source is in the Massif Central, near the village of Astet. It flows into the Rhône near Pont-Saint-Esprit, north-west of Orange. The river gives its name to the Ardèche département of France.

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 limestone cliffs up to 300m high. 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.^{citation needed} The most famous feature is a natural 60m stone arch spanning the river simply known as Pont d'Arc (arch bridge).