The Apance () is a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

in the East of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is one of the main

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' 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 into which the ...

to the Upper

Saône The Saône ( , ; ; ) is a river in eastern France (modern Regions of France, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté). It is a right tributary of the Rhône, rising at Vioménil in the Vosges (department), Vosges Departments of France, department an ...

from the

Grand Est Grand Est (; ) is an Regions of France, administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-A ...

region. It is long.

Etymology

The name Apance is of unclear origin, but occurs as early as the 7th century, as "Spancia".

Geography

The Apance is a right tributary of the Upper Saône (which refers to the part of the Saône upstream of its confluence with the

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; ) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.Haute-Marne department, at the extreme south-east of the Champagne-Ardenne region. The name "Apance-Amance" refers to both the Apance river and another tributary of the upper Saône which rises in the region. The main part of the Apance's course occurs within the Bourbonne-les-Bains canton, which is the furthest east in Langres and the Champagne-Ardenne region. The final part of the river and its confluence with the Upper Saône occur with the historic regions of Champagne, Lorraine and Franche-Comté. This is in the territory of the Châtillon-sur-Saône commune under the Vosges department, at the extreme south-west of Lorraine. The village from which the commune takes its name, is built on a

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...

between the two rivers whose eastern foot dominates their confluence. The confluences is on the south-west border of la Vôge, the highest area in the Saône plateaux. These plateaux form the high upper-basin of the Vôge river, whose source is approximately north-east of its confluence with the Apnace. The Vôge river marks the north-eastern boundary of Apance-Amance, and covers part of the south-west quarter of the Vosges department and the far-North of the Haute-Saône department.

Tributaries

The main tributaries of the Apance are, from upstream to downstream:

Communes

The Apance flows through the following communes and localities, from upstream to downstream: All these communes lie in the Bourbonne-les-bains Canton in the Haute-Marne department, except for Châtillon-sur-Saône, which lies in the Lamarche Canton in the Vosges department.

Hydrology

The Apance rises in the south side of a line of crests oriented north-north-east/south-south west, closing the east of Bassigny where the Meuse rises. In the north-east, this line is the continuation of the "Monts Faucilles", the name of the line of crests closing the north of la Vôge and where the Saône rises. The waters of the northern side of these "mountains" are shared between the

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

to the west and the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

to the east. To the south-west, the line of crests connects to that at the far north-east of the Langres plateau, the Langrois ouvert, where the Marne rises. The waters of the southern slope of this terrain which extends from the Langres plateau to the "Monts Faucilles" feed into the Upper Saône basin. The Apance forms at the far north-east of the territory of the Serqueux commune within the territories of the communes of Larivière-Arnoncourt and Mont-lès-Lamarche, the latter being within the Vosges department in the Lorraine region. The springs which form the Apance run through the combe of Bas du Vau at the western border of a southern finger of the Morimond plateaux. The waters of the northern side of this plateau which seals the north-east of Bassigny feed into the upper Meuse basin. The

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

at the origin of this plateau is at the seat of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

beds infraliasic of the Lower Rhaetian. The lower bed is made of iridescent

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

s from the Upper Keuper. The springs which flow out of this aquifer are at an elevation of about . The dominant east-west direction of the middle to lower course of the Apance, notwithstanding a southerly-oriented diversion, results from the orientation of main faces of the sides. Downstream of Larivière-Arnoncourt, the river valley progressively widens until its outflow into the weak depression of Bourbonne-les-bains. From Villars-Saint-Marcellin to Fresnes-sur-Apance, the lower valley tightens again before its intersection with the valley of the Saône, opening to the south towards the Jussey depression. The Apance drops by about from origin to its mouth, a

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The g ...

of just less than 0.7 percent.

References