Description
After Aubenas and Ruoms, it receives the Chassezac and La Beaume, then sinks from Vallon-Pont-d'Arc into the famous gorges that it has dug itself. It joins the Rhône upstream of Pont-Saint-Esprit.
Its average flow is 65 m3/s, but the river experiences violent floods, called "coups de l'Ardèche", in spring and autumn and periods of very low water in summer. During exceptional floods, as in 1827, 1890 and 1924, it can reach 7 m800/s and its level rises to the record height of 3 meters in the gorges.
Despite its low number of km traveled (120) the flow of the Ardeche (65 m3/s) is relatively high, it should be noted that it is higher than those of the Gardon (32m3/s), the Cèze (22m3 /s) of the Hérault (44 m3/s), or even of the Agout (55 m3/s) important rivers in the south of the Massif Centrale yet much longer in km.
Location