The Apance () is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

in the East of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It is one of the main

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 drainag ...

to the Upper

Saône The Saône ( , ; frp, Sona; lat, Arar) is a river in eastern France. It is a right tributary of the Rhône, rising at Vioménil in the Vosges department and joining the Rhône in Lyon, at the southern end of the Presqu'île. The name ...

from the

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administra ...

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 (, ; ; frp, Dubs) 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 ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) 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 t ...

to the west and the Moselle to the east. To the south-west, the line of crests connects to that at the far north-east of the

Langres Langres () is a commune in northeastern France. It is a subprefecture of the department of Haute-Marne, in the region of Grand Est. History As the capital of the Romanized Gallic tribe known as the Lingones, it was called Andematunnum, then ...

plateau, the Langrois ouvert, where the

Marne Marne can refer to: Places France *Marne (river), a tributary of the Seine *Marne (department), a département in northeastern France named after the river * La Marne, a commune in western France *Marne, a legislative constituency (France) Nethe ...

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 Larivière-Arnoncourt () is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France. History On 1 September 1973, the communes of and Larivière-sur-Apance joined together as part of the associated communes movement, creating Lariviè ...

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, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteris ...

at the origin of this plateau is at the seat of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

beds infraliasic of the Lower Rhaetian. The lower bed is made of iridescent marls 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 of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...

of just less than 0.7 percent.

References