Charente River

Charente
Charente River in Tonnay-Charente
Origin	Haute-Vienne
Mouth	Atlantic Ocean 45°57′24″N 1°4′56″W / 45.95667°N 1.08222°W / 45.95667; -1.08222 (Atlantic Ocean-Charente)Coordinates: 45°57′24″N 1°4′56″W / 45.95667°N 1.08222°W / 45.95667; -1.08222 (Atlantic Ocean-Charente)
Basin countries	France
Length	381 km
Avg. discharge	40 m³/s
Basin area	10,000 km²

The Charente is a 381 km long river in southwestern France. Its source is in the Haute-Vienne département at Chéronnac, a small village near Rochechouart. It flows through the departments of Haute-Vienne, Charente, Vienne and Charente-Maritime. The river flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Rochefort.

Navigation

The Charente was navigable for many years, but navigation has only recently been restored after the river had been virtually abandoned by commercial shipping in the middle of the 20th century. Recreational vessels have now taken possession of the waterway of which the navigability has been completely restored as far upstream as Angoulême. Flowing through cities like Cognac, Jarnac, Saintes and Rochefort, the river has excellent possibilities for tourism.

The river has been equipped upstream from Saintes, and it has locks of a fairly modest size - some 34 by 6 meters. Marinas along the river with boats for hire and good possibilities to moor and disembark make the Charente a perfect leisure area for boat trip lovers ^[1].

Tributaries

Tributaries include:

• Antenne
• Né
• Coran
• Seugne
• Bramerit
• Boutonne
• Arnoult
• Bandiat
• Tardoire
• Touvre
• Bonnieure

Cities

Cities along the river include:

• Civray
• Jarnac
• Montignac-Charente
• Angoulême
• Cognac
• Saintes
• Taillebourg
• Saint-Savinien
• Tonnay-Charente
• Rochefort
• Soubise
• Vergeroux

References

1. ^ http://www.noordersoft.com/indexen.html

External links

• http://www.geoportail.fr
• The Charente at the Sandre database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charente River

This Poitou-Charentes geographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.