Durance

The Durance () is a river in southeastern France, a left tributary of the Rhône river. It is the longest river in Metropolitan France without a department named after it.
Geography.
The Durance river has a length of and a drainage basin with an area of approximately .
Its average yearly discharge (volume of water which passes through a section of the river per unit of time) is at Saint-Paul-lès-Durance in the Bouches-du-Rhône department at an altitude of , for a period of 95 years.
Average monthly discharge (m3/s) at Saint-Paul-lès-Durance
Course.
The Durance starts in the "pré de Gondran" ("meadow of Gondran"), on the east side of the "Sommet des Anges" mountain, in the "commune" of Montgenèvre (a ski resort near Briançon), Hautes-Alpes department, at an elevation of about . It then flows to the southwest through the departments of Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône.
Finally, the river flows into the Rhône river, as a left tributary, south of the city of Avignon.
The Durance only flows through two departments: Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence; it forms the border between two other departments but it does not flow through them: Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône. It flows through the Var department only for a short distance.
It flows through the following communes, among others:
Main tributaries.
The main tributaries of the Durance river are:
Left tributaries:
Right tributaries: