Les 5 FLEUVES français les plus importants | Français COURANT. Sous-titres + transcription PDF.

Hello and welcome to episode 137 of the Fluidité podcast. Today I decided to talk to you a little bit about geography, which I find nice to know when we learn a foreign language. It is part of the cultural side that will make us progress. So today we will see what are the 5 most important rivers in France that we learn at school. We will talk about their geographical characteristics, why they are so important, and the big cities that are located on their way. I will also explain to you the most common vocabulary that is used in all this area, the difference between rivers and rivers, etc. But for that, stay tuned! Do you learn French? Fabien offers you content in common French that talks about culture, history, French geography, but also biographies, dialogues or learning tips. Welcome to the Fluidité podcast! Before I start, I would like to talk to you about our VIP club. This is my Patreon page where you have the material to study my content and become better in French. For example, for each content I make, you have exclusive bonuses such as the vocabulary list, bilingual transcriptions, the audio version, and you receive the content before the public. So everything to promote your immersion. The VIP club is also a large community with more than 350 French learners. We talk together every day on a private telegram group. We do different activities in French twice a week on video calls. So you can also practice your French, find or share resources with other learners from around the world and make friends. You will practice your French while having fun and it is crucial to stay motivated. To sign up for the VIP club, I leave you the link in the description on podcast platforms and on YouTube to join our VIP club on Patreon. You can stay as long as you want and come with pleasure. I often do promotions so don't hesitate to go see my Patreon page. Rivers are of capital importance for a country since they have several major roles. They bring us our drinking water. They allow the development of agriculture by irrigation, the import of water. They are used to transport goods or people. They host specific ecosystems, etc. So they participate in all the development of a nation and, as we all know, it is thanks to them that the history of a country was created, being the only means of transport for centuries, but also a natural barrier against attacks. In fact, the largest French cities were created around a river. Nowadays, rivers serve as natural limits to divide our country and they have given their name to regions, departments, cities, etc. But first of all, what is a river? It is said that it is a stream of water. So water that goes a long way, a long path. And yes, the same word course that you have in a French course and that you also find in the words course or parkour for example. So a river is the part of the stream that goes into the sea or into the ocean. It all starts in the mountains at the birth of the river where there is a small spring. So a little water that starts to come down from the mountain. The spring thickens and then becomes a torrent. Then the torrents come together to form a stream. Then the streams together form rivers and the rivers create rivers. In French, we say that a stream is thrown somewhere to say that it ends somewhere. A river is thrown only in a river and a river in the sea or ocean. So a river is the last part of the stream. The place where the river ends, so where it spills, is called an embankment. You may recognize the word mouth of the same family, which is synonymous with opening. And in French, we use the verb déboucher sur a lot to say lead to a place or end somewhere. For example, this street leads to the Eiffel Tower. It means that the street ends on the Eiffel Tower. The path, the tracé that follows the river is called the bed. Yes, like the furniture where you sleep in a room. When a river overflows, it comes out of its bed and its level rises too much due to heavy rain, this phenomenon is called a creek. The word comes from the past participle of the verb to grow, synonymous with growing or rising. In general, when there is a big creek due to heavy rain, it creates floods. The power of a river, i.e. the number of liters per second it carries, is called the flow. The flow is also used to talk about the speed of internet connection, so you will hear the French use this word frequently. In short, that's it for the basic and useful vocabulary, so we can now start our list. We will start with the first of the five rivers, it is the shortest of our ranking, and the one I know the most since it is in my native region and that I live next to, La Garonne. The river takes its source in Spain, in the Pyrenees, at an altitude of 1,800 meters and flows into the Atlantic Ocean, so on the west coast of France, right next to Bordeaux. La Garonne joins the Dordogne, another river, to flow together into the estuary of the Gironde. And you certainly know the names of Gironde and Dordogne, since they are also the names of two departments. There are two large cities on the way to La Garonne, which are Bordeaux, but also Toulouse, which we talked about in their respective episodes. La Garonne is 529 km long, including 8 km on the Spanish side and the rest on the French side, so it is almost entirely French. This imposing stream irrigates a large part of the southwest, and thanks to it, we get one of the largest regions of wine in France, the wine of Bordeaux, during La Garonne as they say. The second river of our top is not the longest, but it is certainly the most important and the most strategic, since I am going to talk about the Seine. It takes its source near the city of Dijon, at only 440 meters in altitude, and normally you already know which city it crosses. And yes of course, the Seine is the river that passes through Paris and which allowed the construction of our beautiful capital, as I explained in the three episodes on the history of Paris that I invite you to listen to, I put the link in the description. Before arriving in Paris, we can also specify that the river passes through the city of Troyes, a pretty medieval-style city, and after having watered the capital, the Seine continues its path and also passes through Rouen, a city known for its cathedral and which is the prefecture of Seine-Maritime and Normandy. The river then ends up crossing 776 km by throwing itself near the Havre in the Manche, the sea that separates France from England, so it is a 100% French river. As the Seine passes through very populated regions, including the capital and its surroundings, it feeds nearly a third of the population in water. So it plays a crucial role in the country's economy, with Paris and Rouen becoming the two largest river ports in the country. Fluvial is the adjective of the word river and the masculine plural is fluvio. We then move on to the third element of our list and the most powerful river of all, the Rhône, a river in southeastern France and 814 km long. It is international since it does not take its source in France, but in Switzerland in the Alps. It is it that feeds the famous Lac Clément and then passes through Geneva, still on the Swiss side. After Switzerland, it enters France and crosses one of the largest cities in the country, Lyon, which I spoke about in its dedicated episode. The Rhône also passes through Valence or Avignon to complete its route in the Mediterranean Sea by the Camargue delta where it is divided in two. So the Rhône is mostly French and it feeds about 13% of the territory in water. So it is the most powerful in terms of flow, two to three times more powerful than the Seine for example. This is due to its elevation, therefore to its steep slope since it starts from 2,200 meters of altitude to reach level 0. Being at the crossroads of France, Italy and Switzerland and being easily navigable, the Rhône is a river that makes the link between large strategic industrial areas and high-value goods transport. It feeds the entire Rhône valley and its incredible nature and thanks to its flow, thanks to its power, it has allowed the construction of many dams to operate hydroelectric power plants. We have two rivers left and the penultimate in this ranking is the longest French river with its 1,000 km only on our territory, I am talking about the Loire. It takes its source in the central massif at 1,400 meters of altitude and spills into the Atlantic Ocean, northwest of the country, in the port of Saint-Nazaire, in the Pays de la Loire region. The river passes through several large agglomerations such as Orléans, Tours, Angers or Nantes, the prefecture of the Pays de la Loire region. It is a river of contrasts, its very fertile digs and its still very wild appearance have inspired many painters and other artists. On the other hand, it is difficult to navigate because of very shallow areas. We can talk about the Val de Loire, a large natural area where the famous Châteaux de la Loire are located, some of which are classified as UNESCO World Heritage and which are an important tourist attraction. And since it is the longest river in our territory, there are 7 French departments that use the word Loire in their name, so you will hear it often. We end up with the longest river of the 5, but which does not cross France much, an international river, the Rhine, with a length of 1,230 km. It is one of the most frequented navigable routes in the world, it supplies water to more than 30 million people and it passes through Switzerland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, where it ends its way in the North Sea by a delta. Like the Rhône, it also takes its source in Switzerland, at an altitude of 2,300 meters. On the French side, it passes through Strasbourg and traces the border between France and Germany, crossing many fertile and very rich areas and being the second longest river in Europe after the Danube, it is called the spine of Europe. And that's it for the 5 most important rivers in France, try to write in the comments the list of the 5 to test your memory. In any case, thank you all for watching or listening to this episode, I hope you have learned a lot of French and a lot of culture as usual. You can also try to rewrite in the comments the new words you have learned today and if you have stayed so far, the episode has interested you, so put a like and do not hesitate to subscribe to my YouTube channel and to my podcast. And as for me, I'll see you soon!