The Rance (; br, Renk) is a river of northwestern France. It is long. It flows into the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

between

Dinard Dinard (; br, Dinarzh, ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Dinard'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine Departments of France, department, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, northwestern France. Dinard is on the Côte d'� ...

and

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

. Before reaching the Channel, its waters are barred by a 750 metre long dam forming the

Rance tidal power plant The Rance Tidal Power Station is a tidal power station located on the estuary of the Rance River in Brittany, France. Opened in 1966 as the world's first tidal power station, it is currently operated by Électricité de France and was for 45 ye ...

. The river is linked to the

Vilaine The Vilaine (; br, Gwilen) is a river in Brittany, in the west of France. The river's source is in the Mayenne ''département'' (53), and it flows out into the Atlantic Ocean at Pénestin in the Morbihan ''département'' (56). It is 218 km ...

by means of the

Canal d'Ille-et-Rance The Canal d'Ille-et-Rance (, literally ''Canal of Ille and Rance''; br, Kanol an Il hag ar Renk) is a long canal in northwestern France connecting Dinan to the Vilaine at Rennes, thus forming part of the English Channel/Atlantic Ocean link which ...

. ''

Départements A department (, ) is an administrative or political division in several countries. Departments are the first-level divisions of 11 countries, nine in the Americas and two in Africa. An additional 10 countries use departments as second-level div ...

'' and towns along the river: *

Côtes-d'Armor The Côtes-d'Armor (, ; ; br, Aodoù-an-Arvor, ), formerly known as Côtes-du-Nord ( br, Aodoù-an-Hanternoz, link=no, ), are a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 600,582.

Collinée Collinée (; , Gallo: ''Coètneiz'') was a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France. On , it was merged into the new commune Le Mené.Caulnes Caulnes (; ; Gallo: ''Caunn'') is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France. Geography Climate Caulnes has a oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification ''Cfb''). The average annual temperature in Caulnes ...

Dinan Dinan (; ) is a walled Breton town and a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in northwestern France. On 1 January 2018, the former commune of Léhon was merged into Dinan. Geography Its geographical setting is exceptional. Instead of n ...

Ille-et-Vilaine Ille-et-Vilaine (; br, Il-ha-Gwilen) is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country. It is named after the two rivers of the Ille and the Vilaine. It had a population of 1,079,498 in 2019.

Hydrology and water quality

Tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage b ...

of the Rance include: * Croqueloir * Clergé * Fremeur * Quinéford This river has moderate

turbidity Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality. Fluids can ...

and its brownish water is somewhat low in velocity due to the slight gradient of the watercourse; pH levels have been measured at 8.13Hogan, C. Michael, ''Water quality of freshwater bodies in France'', Lumina Press, Aberdeen, Scotland(2006) within the city of

and

electrical conductivity Electrical resistivity (also called specific electrical resistance or volume resistivity) is a fundamental property of a material that measures how strongly it resists electric current. A low resistivity indicates a material that readily allow ...

of the waters have tested at 33 micro-siemens per centimetre. At this reference location, summer flows are typically in the range of .

References

Rivers of France Rivers of Côtes-d'Armor Rivers of Ille-et-Vilaine Rivers of Brittany 2Rance {{France-river-stub