The Mauldre () is a 35 km long river in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It is a left tributary of the

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

. Its basin area is about 410 square kilometres, which covers 66 municipalities corresponding to 400 000 inhabitants.www.mauldre.fr
/ref> Its source elevation is 135 m. The Mauldre flows into the Seine near

Épône Épône () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. It is situated on the left bank of the River Seine west of Paris. Together with ...

. One of its affluents is the ''ru de Gally'', whose source is in the

gardens of Versailles The Gardens of Versailles (french: Jardins du château de Versailles ) occupy part of what was once the ''Domaine royal de Versailles'', the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover som ...

Course

The Mauldre starts at an altitude of 135 m near the hamlet of Maison Blanche at the limit of the municipalities of

Saint-Rémy-l'Honoré Saint-Rémy-l'Honoré () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Yvelines department An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to ...

and

Coignières Coignières () is a French commune in the Yvelines department, region of Île-de-France. Geography Coignières is situated southwest of Versailles. Its neighbours include Maurepas to the north, Mesnil-Saint-Denis and Lévis-Saint-Nom to the e ...

, and turns north along its entire route. It runs through Beynes and Maule, before flowing into the

at an altitude of 20 m, towards the upstream point of the

island of Rangiport An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island i ...

. The average slope is therefore 3.25 m/km (0.33%). Its confluence with the

Ru de Gally ''Ru, ru, or RU may refer to: Russia * Russia (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code) * Russian language (ISO 639 alpha-2 code) * .ru, the Internet country code top-level domain for Russia China * Rù (入), the entering tone in Chinese language p ...

marks the boundary between the basins of the upper Mauldre (which can generally be forded) and the lower Mauldre. In the lower basin, the Mauldre draws a few meanders and is subdivided in a few places into secondary branches, sometimes called "chevreuses" as in Maule and Aulnay-sur-Mauldre. The Mauldre valley is tucked in between the plateaus that make up the plain of Versailles and the Mantois. It is used by communication axes that connect the Seine valley to the center and south of Yvelines: RD 191, from

Mantes Mantes-la-Jolie (, often informally called Mantes) is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region of north-central France. It is located to the west of Paris, from the centre of the capital. Mantes-la-Jolie is a subpre ...

to Corbeil and the Épône-Mézières to Plaisir-Grignon railway line. A little upstream from Beynes, it is crossed by a 922 m siphon, by the Avre aqueduct, which supplies

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

with drinking water collected in the region of Verneuil-sur-Avre (Eure). It is a valley, dotted with numerous villages which have kept their rural character despite the proximity of the Parisian agglomeration. Many mills were once in operation along its course.

References

Rivers of France Rivers of Île-de-France Rivers of Yvelines {{France-river-stub