Durance

Its source is in the south-western Alps, in the ski resort of Montgenèvre near Briançon. The main tributaries of the Durance are the rivers Bléone and Verdon.

The Durance is a tributary of the Rhône River and flows into the Rhône near Avignon.

Etymology

The Durance is documented in latin as Druentia (1st century), Drouentios potamos (in Ancient Greek), Durantia (854, 1271) or Durentia (1127). The traditional forms are probably derivatives of *Dūrantia, based on the hydronym dur- (French for hard) that is found in the names of many rivers in the Western Alps (Dora in Italy, Dranse in Haute-Savoie, Drôme), Durensola, associated with the rental suffix - antia. All these rivers have their sources in mountains, and have torrential courses.

The Durance flows slower than the Clarée and Guisane, even though they are downstream. The Durance is better known than the other two rivers, because the valley of the Durance is a significant and old transportation route, whereas those of Clarée and Guisane are cul-de-sacs.²

Hydrography

From its source at the foot of Sommet des Anges, at 2.3km,³ beneath Montgenèvre, to the confluence with the Rhone, the Durance traverses 305km. However, a longer course is traced by the Clarée-Durance system and has a length of 325km. The uniqueness of the course is its slope, 81 m/km in its first 12 km, then 15 m/km to the confluence with the Gyronde,⁴ and still nearly 8 m/km to the confluence of Ubaye. This slope remains relatively high in the lower part: approximately 0.33% in its middle part (to the bridge of Mirabeau), then still 0.24% in its lower course.⁵ For comparison, at approximately 100km from the source, the Isere is at 330m altitude and the Durance at 700m. This fact contributes partially to the torrential character of the river, including in the lower part of the river. The uneveness of the Durance from its source to Mirabeau is 1847 m,⁶ and approximately 2090 m to the confluence with the Rhone.

Departments and main towns crossed

Only the agglomerations of Briançon and Sisteron, built where the banks are very boxed, are actually crossed by the Durance, the other towns quoted being built on a slope close to the river:

As for the catchment area, this extends to 4 other departments: the Var, Drôme as well as the Alpes-Maritimes.

From the source to Serre-Ponçon: the start of the river

Until lake Serre-Ponçon, the Durance flows through a broad valley surrounded by the high mountains of the Pelvoux range. It is an alpine river in the nival mode, with high-water in June and a flow that is sustained even in summer. The torrent of Montgenèvre flows into Clarée, crosses Briançon then the Guisane flows into it. It then moves south where the waters of the Gyronde also flow into it (glacial torrent des Ecrins) in L'Argentière-la-Bessée. Its course inflects towards the south-south-east until the confluence with Guil below Guillestre-Montdauphin, then sets out again towards the south-south-west and flows into the lake of Serre-Ponçon a little downstream of Embrun. The confluence with the Ubaye was drowned during the filling of the lake.

From Serre-Ponçon to the water gap of Mirabeau: the middle section of the river

The middle part of the Durance runs in a landscape that changes radically because the mountains draw aside and increasingly vast plains replace them. The bed itself becomes boxed again, digging through the terraces around a furrow of a few meters to a some tens of meters of depth. Here, the mode of the Durance becomes Mediterranean: floods caused by the autumnal rains, severe low water levels in summer. Right before the water gap of Sisteron, the Durance joins Buëch, which recovered water of the channel EDF. Many minor affluents with the rain mode also flow close to Sisteron (Sifts, Jabron, Vançon). As upstream, the Durance remains surrounded by hills or plains, but the valley widens in an alluvial plain several kilometers of width (5km in Manosque), recently arranged with the development modern agriculture and the construction of the A51 motorway. The river receives water from Bléone close to Les Mées, the Adze a few kilometers to the south Oraison. The Verdon flows into the Durance near Cadarache: the place of junction is difficult to see unless placing itself in height. Several stoppings were built along the middle part of the Durance, in addition to Serre-Ponçon: Espinasses, Sisteron, the Stopover and Cadarache. It is in fact more of the hydrants, of which the principal goal is to deviate most of the discharge of river in the channel EDF which feeds from the hydroelectric factories; the lakes which they create cannot be used to control the course of the river. Some of the water is used for irrigation.

The end of the river: Jouques to Avignon

The valley tightens for a few kilometers with the crossing of the Mirabeau water gap (depth 200m)⁷, then rewidens into an even broader plain until the confluence with the Rhone. Its orientation changes from North-South to East-West, like the small provençal mountain ranges between which it flows (Alpilles and Luberon). The Durance receives only one significant affluent on this last part of its course: the Coulon, which circumvents the Lubéron range by the north.

Summary of the affluents

(G) Affluent left bank; (D) Flow Right Bank; (CP) Principal course, announces the name given to part of the course (G) Affluent left bank; (D) Flow Right Bank; (CP) Principal course, announces the name given to part of the course water taken into account in the calculation its length.

Hydrology

River known as “capricious“and formerly dreaded due to its flash floods (it was called the 3rd plague of Provence) as well as for its low water level, the Durance is at the same time an alpine and Mediterranean river with particular morphology. The High-Durance was an alpine river (varying flow of 18 with 197m³/s). Its total area catchment is of 14225 km².⁸ With confluent with Ubaye, it salmon thrived, and one finds trout until Sisteron before installations of the river.

Flow

With the confluence with the Rhone, the average natural flow of the Durance is approximately 190m³/s, with a strong annual variability. It can vary between {{Unité|40m³/s (the most severe low water levels) and 6000m³/s⁹ (floods millénales), levels reached into 1843,1882 and 1886. With the outlet in the lake of Serre-Ponçon, the medium flow is of 81m³/s;¹⁰ on the level of Oraison it is 123m³/s¹¹ and after reception of the Verdon reached 174m³/s¹¹ (250 to 330 m³/s in spring, 100m³/s in the summer¹²). The contribution water of the affluents downstream is very weak. The annual maximum generally occurs in May or June, but the most violent flash floods occur in autumn. The low water level takes place in winter in the high valley and summer in the average and lower part of the course.

Mixed formation

The source areas of the Durance include land with year-round snow, to hills and plateaus with a Mediterranean climate. Thus, the river is subjected to a nival mode in its higher course (with Serre-Ponçon), with winter low water levels and floods each year from May to July. With Serre-Ponçon, for a catchment area of 3600 km², a module of 83,3 m³ /s, with one low water level of 18 m³ /s, and a maximum flood of 1700 m³ /s (value recorded in 1957).¹³

Downstream, its many affluents of medium mountains or the plates to the Mediterranean primarily rain mode n' thebring; water qu' in winter, in spring and theoccasion of raw the autumn, with a low and very irregular flow in summer. Its a shift of the natural maximum of spring from June to May follows while descending the course.^{citation needed}

Flash floods and low water levels

The river is famous from time immemorial for its unstable course, impetuous and changing. The floods, violent and frequent, increased in number and force from the second half of the 16th century, to attenuate and space themselves in the 20th century. As in all the Mediterranean alpine surface, this period of strong increase in the force and the flood frequency is due to the combination of cooling starting from the 14th and until the 19th century (rains and snowfalls more frequent), and to an important clearing of the slopes of the mountains of the basin of the Durance, starting from the 16th century.¹⁴

Between 1832 and 1890, the Durance knew 188 water rises of more than 3 meters (measured with the bridge of Mirabeau).¹⁵ That of 1843 carried several just built suspended bridges (those of Remollon, going back to 1829, of Mirabeau, built in 1835, of Manosque, unfinished, of Les Mées, going back to 1838). The flood of 1872 still carries the bridge of Mallemort (1847).¹⁶ These floods millénales (three in the 19th century: 1843, 1856, 1886) reach 5000 with 6000m³/s according to the auteurs;¹⁷ for comparison, the Seine flooding of 1910 reached approximately 2400 m³/s with its more extremely. With the 19th century, the principal floods are those of 1843,1856 (which flooded Avignon) and 1886.¹⁸ And even of raw less important can be devastating: that of 31 May and 1 June 1877 carried the bridge of Tallard.¹⁹

In the 20th century, the floods were less frequent and violent thanks to the afforestation of the catchment area, but one still observed important ones in 1957 and 1994 (3000 m³/s). These maxima are raised in Mirabeau; in Sisteron, the floods can have a flow of 2800 m³/s; with the confluence with the Verdon, the flow can reach 500 m³/s.¹²

The importance of these floods is due to a very important streaming: the height of the water blade run out in Cadarache east of 472 mm, for an average of 750 mm precipitations: 63% of the rains stream and lead in Durance.¹⁰

Previously, the Durance had carried the town of Rama (between Briançon and Embrun, with the confluence of Biaisse) in the 12th century.²⁰

At Mirabeau, the low water level is of 45 m³ /s, that is to say a variation from 1 to 133; at the time of the dryness of 1921, which lasts until December, the flow goes down up to 27 m³/s.²¹

Formations of islands in the river bed

Management of the course

Dams and canals

To secure devastating floods (which carried sometimes a whole side of bank, and a city with), of dam the started to be built during the Middle Ages. They are often boxes of wood filled up of stones, which do not resist the floods a long time. In another direction, since the same time, one uses the water of the Durance to irrigate the close grounds, then to feed out of water all Provence. The first known canal is the canal Saint-Julien, dug in 1171 by the marquis de Forbin.²³ It was followed by the Adam de Craponne canal (50 km dug in nine months in 1554 from Silvacane to Arles), the canal des Alpilles, the canal de Marseille, the canal de Carpentras, the canal de Manosque, the canal de Ventavon, and the hundreds of other smaller ones,²⁴totalling 540 km dug between the end of the 16th century and the end of the 19th century.²⁵

Marseille Canal

From 1839 to 1854, the engineer Franz Mayor de Montricher built a canal intended to supply the city of Marseille with drinking water. The canal follows a layout of 80km in length of which 17km is underground and traverses the Bouches-du-Rhône. The canal is made out of concrete, the air works out of stones or stones and bricks. Flow of the work is of 10 m³ /s, the slope of 0.36 m/km. The width at the top is 9.4m, the width of the basin 3m.

The catch initial water was located on the Durance at the level of the bridge of Pertuis, at an altitude of 185 meters, and with 50 kilometers with flight bird of Marseilles. From there the channel left towards thewest under theHolyone. During the construction of the large EDF canal, which doubles the Durance from Serre-Ponçon until Salon-de-Provence and the Étang de Berre, the catch water of the canal of Marseilles was deferred on the EDF canal itself, after Saint-Estève-Janson. From there the canal of Marseilles continues towards the North-West with the bridge of Cadenet, where it supplies the basin of Saint-Christophe. The Durance still provides today two-thirds of the water resource of the town of Marseilles.

Hydroelectric installation

In 1955, a law was voted for the installation of the Durance-Verdon. Within this framework, three missions are entrusted at EDF:

This program involved, over one 40 years period, the construction of 23 stoppings and hydrants (hydrants upstream of Claux on Argentière with that of Mallemort while passing by the stopping of Serre-Ponçon), channel EDF of the Durance, feeding 33 hydroelectric stations, and several control stations.²⁷

Impact of the works

The Durance had an average natural flow of 188m³/s and a river mode of Mediterranean type, but hydraulic installations modified its course. Separately a very low reserved flow, the mass of water circulates from now on in a “channel usinier” which skirts the natural bed of the large river in order to make them pass by a series hydro-electric factories.²⁹ This channel usinier can contain until 250m³/s. So at the time of the great floods, the surplus waters borrow again the natural bed, the tanks being largely insufficient to store similar masses water (it acts especially of Serre-Ponçon, but also of the large tanks of the Verdon, its principal affluent).

Ecology along the river

The valley presents the interest to gather many natural habitats Community interest, regularly altered by the floods, and being subject to at the same time the Mediterranean influences and mountain. She plays also a biological big role of corridor, within the framework of green screen national and of ecological network pan european, which explains its classification in zone Natura 2000.

In running water, one counts today from 150 to 200 species of macro-invertébrés,³⁰ but with few plant species (because of the mode of raw).

Water quality is considered good in the higher valley, in spite of inevitable filling with many reserves, which deprive the Durance of the power necessary to the carrying of the sediments. This quality was obtained thanks to actions of cleansing (including on the affluents of Luye and of Coulon). There remain some black spots in the average valley (downstream from the Arkema factory in Château-Arnoux, after the junction with Coulon).³¹

The 32 cm depth on average involves strong temperature variations according to the season (from 0 to 28°C) and according to the hour of the day (7,5°C of amplitude the summer, 10°C the winter), which selects the watery organizations adapted to these changes. The installation of the valley and the spacing and reduction in the importance of the floods allowed the colonization of alluvial space by one ripisylve of alder S and of poplar S which constitutes one locally gallery-forest. The bed, although less wet, accommodates 110 more species of birds at the year, plus 82 species of migratory birds which find there zones of rest and nourrissage and sometimes of reproduction. 110 species hibernate there.³² Avian diversity increased after installations, but it is probable there was formerly a diversity higher than this, the same number individuals higher for certain families of birds.

The populations of algae and water plants (100 species on average and the low Durance) and water invertebrates (77 species) are varied than before installations (comparison with those of Adze and of Buëch). Jussy, invasive plant, gradually appears (since 1986) in the stagnant water (dead gravel pits, pond, arms).³⁵

There are in the same way few fish species (14), but some patrimonial species; in addition to blageon and it toxostome one finds there also it apron of the Rhone (fish very threatened of disappearance and it loach (Cobitis taenia taenia) still very significantly presents. But the silting and the lack; oxygen compromise the reproduction of the truites.³⁶ The Brook lamprey was still recently seen there. Perhaps it has disappeared.³⁷

History

The Durance played a very important part in the history of Provence, and largely contributed to the economic growth and demographic of the Marseilles area, after having been an obstacle with circulation during centuries. Of theAntiquity with the 19th century, the Durance was famous for its difficult crossing, its brutal floods and an inconstant flow. The width of its bed, the force and low depth of its current, and the changes of course after the floods returned there crossing by ford or ferry, as well as the very difficult river navigation (in spite of a height relatively important water in period of high-water). One needed sometimes several ferries to cross the various arms or channels, to frequently rebuild the cable (“flying bridge” ) support, and the unstable and sometimes abrupt banks returned the establishment of the ferry and its difficult access. The fords were difficult to establish, often carried: the only durable ones are those of Mirabeau and Pertuis, unusable in periods of crues.³⁸

Prehistory

Twelve million years ago, the Durance ran to the Mediterranean, without throwing itself in the Rhône.³⁹ During glaciation of Riss, the Durance took its source with Sisteron, where the icecap finished recovering Alpes.⁴⁰ It is also during this period that the Durance course changed towards the west, between Luberon and Alpilles, and flow into the Rhone.⁴¹

Antiquity

In pre-Roman times, the Durance was the border between various people celto-Ligurians established along his bed, like Cavares (Cavaillon) and them Salyes (Bouches-du-Rhône).

Strabon (1st century) signaled that a ferry was established in Cavaillon,⁴² the great Roman way of Spain in Italy not crossing the Durance between Cavaillon and the Mount-Genèvre. That a bridge existed in Sisteron⁴³ Other ferries were allowed to cross it, in particular with the height of Pertuis^{citation needed}, city whose name preserves the memory of this function. Difficult to cross (except in Sisteron, where its course is tightened between two rock banks), the Durance is nevertheless navigable. Low-relief the S of Cabrières-d'Aigues show it, the river is used for the transport of various liquid food products (wine, olive oil),⁴⁴ Gallo-Romans using the boat-towers $\in$ and wind to go up the current. Several specialized corporations ensured this transport: nautes had to it monopoly transport on large rivers and used boats, them utricular $\in$ which had it on the small rivers and in the marshes used rafts floating on inflated goatskin bottles. Two corporations the utricular ones were in Sisteron and Riez.⁴⁵

This trade fed the activity of an important port, near to the road crossroads of Sisteron, at the place called Le Bourguet, in L'Escale: the port existed before the Roman conquest, but was arranged during the 1st century BC, knows prosperity until the Crisis of the Third Century, before finding an economic activity until the beginning of the 5th century.⁴⁵

The valley of the Durance is a way of penetration of the Alps, borrowed by the Via Domitia; a statue of Janus is high besides in Montgenèvre, not passage between Cisalpine Gaul and it Gallia Narbonensis⁴⁶

Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, the county of Forcalquier all in length along the Durance is stretched, of Cavaillon to La Roche-de-Rame close to Embrun. 12th century with the 19th century, it river was employed with flotation of wood, crossed in the Alps (in particular by the monks of Boscodon, which by privilege of 1191 used the fleuve⁴⁷) and used in the towns of plain and the shipyards.

Other goods were transferred on the river, of which mainly salt, goods which see their price increased by the ten tolls established out of the 300 km of the river.⁴⁸

The bridge of Sisteron, set up with the Middle Ages, remained in the middle of the 19th century the only passage into hard a bank with theother of the Durance. After the year Millet, the number of ferries (already present before) increases however: it is about trail ferries (equipped with a mast which are pressed on a cable, the flying bridge, tended between two banks of the principal course). The oldest known one was the one between La Roque-d'Anthéron and Cadenet (in Gontard), attested in 1037.⁴⁹ In the 16th century, exists still that of Pertuis. Thereafter, the evidence of existence of ferries multiplies, in particular with Rognonas, La Brillanne (13th century), Noves, Orgon, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, Meyrargues, Pertuis, Peyrolles, that of Cante-Perdrix in Mirabeau, Manosque, Giropey, Château-Arnoux, Le Bourguet, Volonne, Bompas.⁴⁹ The principal ones are those of Cadenet and Mirabeau, which were borrowed by the herds of sheep in transhumance.⁵⁰ Other ferries are installed to supply the mills built at the end of the 18th century in Poët, with Upaix and Claret.⁵¹ Nevertheless, the service road by ferry remains increasingly weaker than that of the Rhone (a ferry all 9 to 11 km on average, against every 5.2 km on the Rhone).⁵² Starting from the 12th century, one also builds wood bridges, which last more or less a long time, and are destroyed in various ways:

19th century

In 1856, the millénale floods all the basin of the Durance, of Sisteron to its confluence in Avignon. It carries the cultivated alluvial terraces, breaks the dams, destroys the channels.

The trade unions of sprinkling (which replaced the pareries) and the local services of the Bridges and Chaussées request an exceptional intervention from the State. The first service of observation of a river is created, the Special service of Durance, in order to study the hydrology of the river, follow-up of the kilometric demarcation of the river as from 1868, the confluence with the Verdon with that with the Rhone. This demarcation allows one levelling and to chart the grounds inondables.⁵⁴ The construction of the Marseilles canal in the middle of the 19th century allowed the Marseilles agglomeration to develop very quickly.

20th century: hydroelectric installations

The use of the Durance as a loader-gate decreased with the competition from road, and ceased definitively with introduction of rail. There remained only 10 raftmen in 1896, one in 1908.⁴⁹

Hydroelectric installations, with the construction of the chain of stoppings on the Durance, the Verdon like on Buëch and Bléone, had the most important economic impacts and most visible in the landscape. The major part of the flow was diverted in channels downstream from Serre-Ponçon, and only in the natural bed a reserved flow of 2 with circulates 5m³/s, corresponding to 1/40 of the natural flow. The bed is gradually fixed and vegetation starts to push there, where thewater does not run any more. Thanks to the tanks of Serre-Ponçon and Holy-Crosses, which can retain a total of more than 2 billion tons water, irrigation remains possible in summer during the driest years. The water levels allowed development of the local economy thanks to the summer tourism.

Economic

From the 1950s, very hard aggregate was extracted from the river bed to be used for road surfacing and resistant concretes. The majority of the quarries are now in the process of closing. The few factories using the river's energy have closed (an aluminium factory at L'Argentière-la-Bessée) or are being closed (Arkema at Saint-Auban).

In the Arts

The Durance is represented in the form of a majestic group carved in the Palais Longchamp, in Marseille, built between 1862 and 1869 by the architect Espérandieu in order to celebrate the arrival of water of the Durance in the city, via Canal de Marseille.

Notes and references

^ "The Durance at the Sandre database".
^ Nicolas Mastras, “Durance, source et frontière” in Jacques Sapiega, "La Durance, parcours & regards", District council PACA, 2004 (DVD) and Jean-Paul Clébert and Jean-Pierre Rouyer, La Durance, Privat, Toulouse, 1991, in the collection Rivers and valleys of France, ISBN 2708995030, p 20
^ Clébert & Rouyer, Durance, p 20
^ Clébert & Rouyer, Durance, p 35
^ Guy Barruol, “The Durance in Antiquity and the Middle Ages”, inDenis Furestier, Catherine Lonchambon, Cecile Miramont, The Durance length into broad: ferries, boats and rafts in the history of a capricious river, The Alps of light No 149, Forcalquier 2005, ISBN 2-906162-71-X, p 24
^ Guy Barruol, p 24
^ Guy Valencia, “Hydraulics and morphology of the bed in zone of Piedmont and plain”, Direction of the environment, of sustainable development and theagriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, [S.l.] : District council PACA, p 11
^ Serge Gachelin, “the major hydrographic Network of the area”, p 7
^ Cecile Miramont, “History of the river landscapes”, inGuy Barruol, Denis Furestier, Catherine Lonchambon, The Durance length into broad: ferries, boats and rafts in the history of a river capricieuse, The Alps of light No 149, Forcalquier 2005, ISBN 2-906162-71-X, p 15
^ ^a ^b Clébert & Rouyer, Durance, p 39
^ ^a ^b Clébert & Rouyer, Durance, p 38
^ ^a ^b Géraldine Bérard, Archaeological chart Alp-of-High-Provence, Academy of the Inscriptions and the Humanities, Paris, 1997, p 51
^ ^a ^b Serge Gachelin, “the major hydrographic Network of the area”, p 8
^ Cécile Miramont, The Durance length in large, p 18-19
^ Cecile Miramont, The Durance length in large, p 15
^ Philippe Autran, “the highway network with XIXe and XXe centuries: revolution with mechanization”, in Autran, Guy Barruol and Jacqueline Ursch, From one bank to another: bridges of High-Provence of Antiquity to our jour', The Alps of light No 153, Forcalquier, 2006. ISBN 2-906162-81-7, p 46-47
^ Dans The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, Serge Gachelin gives 5000 m³ (p 8) like Henri Pignoly (p 99); in the same work, Bernard Amouretti gives 6000 m³ (p 25). Cecile Miramont (to see haut' more; ') give it also an estimate of 6000 m³/s. Jacques Sapiega, in his géorama “the Durance & The Verdon” (DVD The Durance: course and regard '), 5500 m³/s on December 26, 1882 gives; Clébert & Rouyer give 6000 m ³ /s in November 1886, in Durance, p 39
^ Bernard Amouretti, “the Man was a long time under the dependence of the Durance”, Direction of theenvironment, of sustainable development and theagriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, District council PACA, p 25
^ Jean-Paul Clébert and Jean-Pierre Rouyer, the Durance, Pri , Toulouse, 1991, in the Rivières collection and valleys of France, ISBN 2-70899503-0, p 91.
^ Guy Barruol, “the Durance in Antiquity and with the Middle Ages”, p 24
^ Jacques Sapiega, géorama “the Durance & The Verdon”
^ Clébert & Rouyer, Durance, p 32
^ Nicolas Bonci, “transported water”, inJacques Sapiega, The Durance, course & regard', District council PACA, 2004 (DVD)
^ Guy Barruol, “the Durance in Antiquity and with the Middle Ages”, p 25
^ Nicolas Bonci
^ Alain Daubas, The origin of the hydroelectric project of installation the Durance-Verdon, Direction of the environment, of sustainable development and theagriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, District council PACA, p 39
^ Alain Daubas, The network durancian: a renouvelable' energy source; ' , Direction of theenvironment, of sustainable development and theagriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, District council PACA, p 41-42
^ Henri Pignoly, “the problems of believed and the culture of the risk” Direction of theenvironment, of sustainable development and theagriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, District council PACA, p 99
^ "Ministry of theEcology and of sustainable development" (PDF).
^ Jean Giudicelli, “original Characteristics of the river”, Direction of the environment, of sustainable development and agriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, District council PACA, p 57
^ Jean Giudicelli and Karine Viciana, “the Durance today”, Direction of the environment, of sustainable development and agriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, [S.l.] : District council PACA, p 59
^ Jean Giudicelli and Karine Viciana, “the Durance today”, p 59
^ Jean Giudicelli and Karine Viciana, “the Durance today”, p 60
^ Cf. Inventories Natura 2000, Diren
^ Christophe Garrone, “the artificial wetlands basic Durance”, Direction of theenvironment, of sustainable development and theagriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, [S.l.] : District council Paca, p 77
^ Pour the §, Jean Giudicelli and Karine Viciana, “the Durance today”, p 60
^ Inventaires Natura 2000, Diren.
^ Bernard Amouretti, “However, the valley of the Durance was always an axis of passage”, Direction of theenvironment, of sustainable development and theagriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional: District council PACA, p 27
^ Jean-Paul Clébert and Jean-Pierre Rouyer, Durance, Privat, Toulouse, 1991, in the collection Rivers and valleys of France, ISBN 2708995030, p 11.
^ Clébert & Rouyer, Durance, p 11.
^ Clébert & Rouyer, Durance, p 12
^ Barruol, The Durance length in large, p 39
^ Barruol, ' is known; ' The Durance length in large, p 40.
^ Barruol, The Durance length in large, p 31-32
^ ^a ^b Barruol, The Durance length in large, p 32-36
^ Nicolas Masras, “the Durance, source and border”, inJacques Sapiega, The Durance, course & regard', District council PACA, 2004 (DVD).
^ Barruol free, The Durance length in large, p 45,
^ Tolls at Savines, Bréole, Monêtier-Allemont, it Poët, Sisteron, Les Mées, Brillanne, Saint-Paul, Mallemort and Orgon, Barruol, The Durance length in large, p 46
^ ^a ^b ^c Barruol, The Durance length in large, p 48
^ Catherine Lonchambon, “From one bank to another: the “trail ferry””, Direction of theenvironment, of sustainable development and theagriculture, The Durance: bond of life of the territory régional, [S.l.] : District council PACA, p 33
^ Catherine Lonchambon, “From one bank to another: the “trail ferry””, p 33
^ Catherine Lonchambon, “From one bank to another of the Durance: strange boats”, inGuy Barruol, Denis Furestier, Catherine Lonchambon, Cecile Miramont, the Durance length into broad: ferries, boats and rafts in the history of a capricious river, the Alps of light No 149, Forcalquier 2005, ISBN 2-906162-71-X, p 55
^ Barruol, The Durance length in large, p 48. An important canal system irrigation develops, of which some deviating a small portion of the flow towards Arles (channel of Craponne) and Crau.
^ Claude Gouron (photographer), Helene Vésian (author), Serre-Ponçon: photographic voyage to the confluence of Ubaye and Durance, the Trigger guard: Editions Barthelemy and Hangar, 2004. ISBN 2879231655, p 39.
^ According to P. Citron, Giono, Threshold, 1990
^ Clébert & Rouyer, Durance, p 180
^ Clébert & Rouyer, Durance, p 180-183

Contents