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Information about Loire River

Loire
Enlarge picture
The Loire in Orléans.
The Loire in Orléans.
OriginMassif Central
MouthAtlantic Ocean
Basin countriesFrance
Length1,012 km (629 miles)
Source elevation1,408 m (4607 feet)
Avg. discharge850 m³/s
Basin area117,000 km²


The Loire River (pronounced /lwaʁ/ in French), the longest river in France with a length of just over 1000 km, drains an area of 117,000 km², more than a fifth of France. The central part of the Loire Valley was added on the World Heritage Sites list by the UNESCO On December 2, 2000.

Origin of the name

The name "Loire" comes from Latin Liger, which is itself a transcription of the native Gaulish (Celtic) name of the river. The Gaulish name of the river comes from the Gaulish word liga, which means "silt, sediment, deposit, alluvium", and which gave French lie, which in turn gave English lees. Liga comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *legh-, meaning "to lie, lay", which gave many words in English, such as to lie, to lay, ledge, law, etc.

In French the adjective derived from the river is ligérien, as in le climat ligérien ("the climate of the Loire Valley"), a climate considered the most pleasant of northern France, with warmer winters and, more generally, fewer extremes in temperatures than in more continental climates.

Geography

Originating in the north-eastern part of the southern Cévennes highlands, the Loire flows roughly northward through Roanne and Nevers to Orléans and thereafter westward through Tours to the Atlantic at Nantes. Changes in river's water levels have sometimes resulted in serious flooding, notably in 1856, 1866 and 1911.

Unlike most other rivers in western Europe, there are very few dams or locks creating obstacles to its natural flow (the Villerest dam, built in 1985 a few kilometers south of Roanne, has played a key-role in preventing recent flooding). As a result, the Loire is a very popular river for boating excursions, flowing through a pastoral countryside, past limestone cliffs and storybook castles.

Navigation

For over 2,000 years, the Loire was one of the great highways of France, but the coming of the railway in the 19th century caused a collapse in the navigation. Today the river is only regarded as navigable as far as Bouchemaine, where the Maine joins it near Angers.

The Phoenicians and Greeks had used packhorses to transport goods from Lyon to the Loire to get to the Atlantic coast. The Romans used the Loire as far as Roanne, only around 150km from the source, whilst the Vikings used longships to attack Tours.

River traffic increased until the 19th century, with a toll system being used in medieval times. For centuries attempts were made to keep a navigable channel open by the use of wooden embankments and dredging. During the 17th century, Jean-Baptiste Colbert instituted stone training walls and quays from Roanne to Nantes which helped make the river more reliable, but navigation was frequently stopped by flood and drought. In 1707 floods were said to have drowned 50,000 people, with the water rising more than 3m in 2 hours in Orléans. A typical passenger timetable from Orléans to Nantes took 8 days, with the journey against the stream taking 14.

Steam-driven passenger boats appeared soon after the beginning of the 19th century plying the river between Nantes and Orléans and by 1843, 70,000 passengers were being carried annually in the lower river. However with the introduction of the railway in the 1840s trade on the river steadily declined and proposals to build a fully navigable river up to Briare came to nothing. The opening of the Canal latéral à la Loire in 1838 enabled navigation between Digoin and Briare to continue, but the river level crossing at Briare remained a problem until the construction of the Briare aqueduct in 1896.

The Canal de Roanne à Digoin was also opened in 1838 and was nearly closed in 1971 but still provides navigation further up the Loire valley to Digoin. However the 261km Canal de Berry, a narrow canal with locks only 2.7m wide, which was opened in 1820s and connected the Canal latéral à la Loire at Marseilles-lès-Aubigny to the Cher River at Noyers and back into the Loire near Tours, was closed in 1955.

Tributaries

(c)

Départements and towns

Enlarge picture
The Loire River as it flows through Blois.
Several départements of France were named after the Loire. The Loire flows through the following départements and towns: Last updated 2007

See also

External links

Commune of
Orléans

Orléans and the Loire River

Location

Coordinates

Administration
Country  France
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Headstream is the origin of water flow that initiates the subject watercourse. It is the start of the river or stream.

The source of a river or stream may be a lake, a marsh, a spring, glacier, or a collection of headwaters.
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Massif Central is visible as a large red mass in the mid-southern part of the country. On the southeastern border with Italy are the Alps and on the southwestern border with Spain are the Pyrenees.
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Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres (41.1 million square miles), it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface.
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A drainage basin is a region of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, dam, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers that convey the water as well as the land surfaces from
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Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"


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Headstream is the origin of water flow that initiates the subject watercourse. It is the start of the river or stream.

The source of a river or stream may be a lake, a marsh, a spring, glacier, or a collection of headwaters.
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In hydrology, the discharge of a river is the volume of water transported by it in a certain amount of time. The unit used is usually m³/s (cubic meters per second, or cumecs). For example, the average discharge of the Rhine river is 2200 m³/s.
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French (français, pronounced [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, and today by about 300 million people around the world as either
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river is a natural waterway that transits water through a landscape from higher to lower elevations. It is an integral component of the water cycle. The water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge (as seen at baseflow
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Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"


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Distances shorter than 106 m

Conversions

1 megametre is equal to:
  • 1 E+6 m
  • approximately 621.37 miles
  • Side of square with area 1,000,000 km²

Human-built structures

  • 2,451 km — Length of the Alaska Highway

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1 E+11 m²
  • 38,600 square miles
  • a square with side 316 km
  • a circle with radius 178 km
  • 100,250 km² -- Iceland (land)

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    • State Party  France
    Type Cultural
    Criteria i, ii, iv
    Reference 933
    Region Europe and North America

    Inscription History
    Inscription 2000  (24th Session)
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    A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO
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    United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

    UNESCO flag
    Org type: Specialized Agency
    Acronyms: UNESCO
    Head: Director General of UNESCO
    Koïchiro Matsuura
     Japan
    Status: Active

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    December 2 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

    Events

    • 1409 - The University of Leipzig opens.

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    20th century - 21st century
    1970s  1980s  1990s  - 2000s -  2010s  2020s  2030s
    1997 1998 1999 - 2000 - 2001 2002 2003

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    Latin}}} 
    Official status
    Official language of: Vatican City
    Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
    Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
    Roman Catholic Church
    Language codes
    ISO 639-1: la
    ISO 639-2: lat
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    Gaulish or Gallic is the name given to the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul before the Vulgar Latin of the late Roman Empire became dominant in Roman Gaul. According to Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars it was one of three languages in Gaul, the others being Aquitanian and
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    Celtic languages are the languages descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. During the 1st millennium BC, they were spoken across Europe, from the Bay of Biscay and the North Sea, up the Rhine and down the Danube to the
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    French (français, pronounced [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, and today by about 300 million people around the world as either
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    English}}} 
    Writing system: Latin (English variant) 
    Official status
    Official language of: 53 countries
    Regulated by: no official regulation
    Language codes
    ISO 639-1: en
    ISO 639-2: eng
    ISO 639-3: eng  
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    Lees refers to deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate, or are carried by the action of "fining", to the bottom of a vat of wine after fermentation and aging. The yeast deposits in beer brewing are known as Trub (brewing).
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    Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Although the existence of such a language has been accepted by linguists for a long time, there has been debate about many specific
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    Cévennes are a range of mountains in south-central France, covering parts of the départements of Gard, Lozère, Ardèche, and Haute-Loire.

    The word Cévennes comes from the Gaulish Cebenna, which was Latinized by Julius Caesar to Cevenna.
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    Commune of
    Roanne

    Location
    Longitude 04° 04' 08" E
    Latitude 46° 02' 12" N

    Administration
    Country  France
    Arrondissement Roanne
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    Commune of
    Nevers

    Place de la République in Nevers

    Location
    Longitude 03° 09' 26" E
    Latitude 46° 59' 36" N

    Administration
    Country  France
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    Commune of
    Orléans

    Orléans and the Loire River

    Location

    Coordinates

    Administration
    Country  France
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    Commune of
    Tours

    Town hall, Victor Laloux, architect (1896-1904)
    Location

    Coordinates

    Administration
    Country
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