The Rance (; , ) is a river of northwestern France. It is long. The semi-tidal river flows into the
English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
between Dinard and Saint-Malo.
Before reaching the Channel, its waters are barred by a 750 metre long dam forming the Rance tidal power plant.
The river is linked to the
Vilaine
The Vilaine (; ) is a river in Brittany, in the west of France. The river's source is in the Mayenne ''Département in France, département'' (53), and it flows out into the Atlantic Ocean at Pénestin in the Morbihan ''département'' (56). It is ...
Côtes-d'Armor
The Côtes-d'Armor ( , ; ; , ), formerly known as Côtes-du-Nord until 1990 (, ), is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 600,582.Collinée, Caulnes, Dinan
*
Ille-et-Vilaine
Ille-et-Vilaine (; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Ill-e-Vilaenn'', ) is a departments of France, department of France, located in the regions of France, region of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in the northwest of the country. It is named a ...
Tributaries of the Rance include:
* Croqueloir
* Clergé
* Fremeur
* Quinéford
This river has moderate turbidity 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 Dinan and
electrical conductivity
Electrical resistivity (also called volume resistivity or specific electrical resistance) is a fundamental specific property of a material that measures its electrical resistance or how strongly it resists electric current. A low resistivity in ...
of the waters have tested at 33 micro-siemens per centimetre. At this reference location, summer flows are typically in the range of .