The Acheneau is a French river in the

Loire-Atlantique Loire-Atlantique (; br, Liger-Atlantel; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', br, Liger-Izelañ, link=no) is a department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. It had a population o ...

Department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

, in the

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; ; br, Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" (). ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, a tributary on the left bank of the

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

which is fed by the

Lac de Grand-Lieu Lac de Grand-Lieu () is a lake located to the southwest of Nantes, in the Loire-Atlantique, France, and almost entirely in Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu. At an elevation of , its surface area is , making it the largest lake in France in winter, bu ...

Geography

Beginning at the north of the Lac de Grand-Lieu, the Acheneau is joined from the south by the at

Saint-Léger-les-Vignes Saint-Léger-les-Vignes (; br, Sant-Lezer-ar-Gwiniegi) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. See also *Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department The following is a list of the 207 communes of the Loire-Atlantiq ...

. After passing through

Port-Saint-Père Port-Saint-Père (; br, Porzh-Pêr) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Geography Port-Saint-Père is situated on the west bank of the Acheneau, northwest of the Lac de Grand-Lieu. Population Sights * Planè ...

, it passes

Cheix-en-Retz Cheix-en-Retz (, literally ''Cheix in Retz''; br, Keiz-Raez) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Population See also *Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department The following is a list of the 207 communes ...

and the confluence of the Blanche, also from the south, then reaches the outskirts of

Rouans Rouans (; br, Rodent) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Population See also *Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department The following is a list of the 207 communes of the Loire-Atlantique department of ...

, from which it takes the 4 km route of the Buzay canal which, after crossing the , joins the Loire at the end of a 29.8 km route. Before the construction of the Buzay canal, the current “Vue étier” formed its natural course between

Vue Vue or VUE may refer to: Places * Vue, Loire-Atlantique, a commune in France * The Vue, a skyscraper in Charlotte, North Carolina Arts, entertainment and media * Vue (band), a rock and roll band from San Francisco, California * Vue Cinemas, a c ...

(source) and Rouans (confluence).

Municipalities and cantons crossed

Entirely in the department of Loire-Atlantique, the Acheneau crosses the nine municipalities of

Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu (; br, Sant-Filberzh-Deaz) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. It is about 400 km southwest of Paris, via Chartres, Le Mans, Angers, and Nantes. The town is twinned with the ...

(origin), Bouaye,

Saint-Mars-de-Coutais Saint-Mars-de-Coutais (; br, Sant-Marzh-ar-C'hoad) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Transport Gare de Port-Saint-Père-Saint-Mars is served by train services between Pornic, Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie and Na ...

Brains A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

, and

Le Pellerin Le Pellerin (; br, Pentelloù) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Population Personalities Le Pellerin was the birthplace (21 May 1759) of Joseph Fouché. See also *Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department ...

(confluence). In terms of cantons, the Acheneau originates in the canton of Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu, crosses the

canton of Rezé-1 The canton of Rezé-1 is an administrative division of the Loire-Atlantique department, western France. It was created at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Rezé. It consists of the following com ...

, canton of Machecoul-Saint-Même and its confluence lies in the canton of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, all in the Arrondissement of Nantes.

Watershed

The Acheneau crosses four hydrographic zones as defined by Sandre, but most of its course lies within the zone "Acheneau from the Tenu to the Canal de Buzay & Canal de Buzay to the Loire". Its origin lies in the zone "Boulogne from the Rau du Redour to the Lac de Grand Lieu & the Acheneau from its source to the Tenu". Its final sections fall in the zones "The Loire from the L'Erdre to the Canal de Buzay" and "The Loire from Canal de Buzay to the Etier de Cordemais". When considered with its tributaries (Blanche and Tenu) and the rivers of the Lac de Grand Lieu (Ognon and Boulogne), the entire watershed covers a vast swathe from the south to the west of Nantes.

Management

L'Acheneau is managed by the (South-Loire Hydraulic Development Syndicate) (SAH). This watercourse has such a low gradient that its course can be reversed when sufficiently high tides influence the level of the river. To manage water levels in the bordering marshlands, the Lac de Grand-Lieu, the Tenu, and even as far as the Marais Breton, a complex system of automated and remotely controlled locks, sluices and pumps have been developed on the river and related watercourses to regulate the flows. The at the river's junction with the at Le Pellerin and the ''Vieux Buzay'' sluice between the same canal and the river at Rouans control the flow to and from the Loire. The ''Grandlieu'' or ''Bouaye sluice'' () between the communes of Bouaye and

regulates flow between the river and the lake.

External links

* * {{cite web , url=http://saintmemeletenu.free.fr/10usurpation/usurpation.htm , title=l'Acheneau, une usurpation d'identité aux dépens du Tenu , language=fr , trans-title=The Acheneau, an identity theft at the expense of the Tenu Rivers of Loire-Atlantique Tributaries of the Loire Rivers of Pays de la Loire Rivers of France