The Mauldre () is a 35 km long river in

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 a left tributary of the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

. Its basin area is about 410 square kilometres, which covers 66 municipalities corresponding to 400 000 inhabitants.www.mauldre.fr
/ref> Its source elevation is 135 m. The Mauldre flows into the Seine near Épône. One of its affluents is the ''ru de Gally'', whose source is in the

gardens of Versailles The Gardens of Versailles ( ) occupy part of what was once the ''Domaine royal de Versailles'', the royal demesne of the Palace of Versailles, château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the Palace of Versailles, palace, the gardens cover so ...

Course

The Mauldre starts at an altitude of 135 m near the hamlet of Maison Blanche at the limit of the municipalities of Saint-Rémy-l'Honoré and Coignières, and turns north along its entire route. It runs through Beynes and Maule, before flowing into the

at Épône at an altitude of 20 m, towards the upstream point of the island of Rangiport. The average slope is therefore 3.25 m/km (0.33%). Its confluence with the Ru de Gally marks the boundary between the basins of the upper Mauldre (which can generally be forded) and the lower Mauldre. In the lower basin, the Mauldre draws a few meanders and is subdivided in a few places into secondary branches, sometimes called "chevreuses" as in Maule and Aulnay-sur-Mauldre. The Mauldre valley is tucked in between the plateaus that make up the plain of Versailles and the Mantois. It is used by communication axes that connect the Seine valley to the center and south of Yvelines: RD 191, from

Mantes Mantes-la-Jolie (, often informally called Mantes) is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region of north-central France. It is located to the west of Paris, f ...

to Corbeil and the Épône-Mézières to Plaisir-Grignon railway line. A little upstream from Beynes, it is crossed by a 922 m siphon, by the Avre aqueduct, which supplies

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

with drinking water collected in the region of Verneuil-sur-Avre (Eure). It is a valley, dotted with numerous villages which have kept their rural character despite the proximity of the Parisian agglomeration. Many mills were once in operation along its course.

References

Rivers of France Rivers of Île-de-France Rivers of Yvelines {{France-river-stub