The Saine is a French river that flows through the Jura department in the

Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (; , sometimes abbreviated BFC; Arpitan: ''Borgogne-Franche-Comtât'') is a region in eastern France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions, from a merger of Burgundy and Franche-Comté. The new region ...

region. It is a left tributary of the Ain.

Geography

Nineteen kilometers long, the Saine rises in a green, sparsely populated area, in the small village of Foncine-le-Haut, in the Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park, at an altitude of around 892 m. First, it heads south-west, then, on reaching Foncine-le-Bas, it bends north-west and cuts deeply into the limestone plateau, creating the gorges de Malvaux, where it receives a right-bank tributary, the Bief de la Ruine, with its famous waterfall. Near the village of Les Planches-en-Montagne, it creates a spectacular 1 km-long fault, the Gorges de la Langouette. It then continues in the same direction until its confluence with the Ain at Syam, four kilometers upstream of

Champagnole Champagnole () is a commune in the Jura department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. Geography Champagnole has the publicity tag of "Pearl of the Jura" and is a small town at the geographical centre of Jura tourism. It stands on ...

, at an altitude of 521 m.

Communes and cantons crossed

In the Jura department alone, the Saine flows through five communes and two cantons: * from upstream to downstream: Foncine-le-Haut (source), Foncine-le-Bas, Les Planches-en-Montagne,

Chaux-des-Crotenay Chaux-des-Crotenay () is a commune in the Jura department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. Population Battle of Alesia The siege of Alesia was the last major battle between the Gauls under Vercingetorix and the Romans under ...

, Syam (confluence). In terms of cantons, the Saine rises in the canton of Les Planches-en-Montagne, and flows into the canton of Champagnole, all in the arrondissement of

Lons-le-Saunier Lons-le-Saunier () is a commune and capital of the Jura Department, eastern France. Geography The town is in the heart of the Revermont region, at the foot of the first plateau of the Jura massif. The Jura escarpment extends to the east a ...

Watershed

The Saine flows through four hydrographic zones 'L'Ain de la Saine à l'Anguillon (zones V200 V201 excluded)' (V204), 'La Saine de la Lemme à l'Ain' (V203), 'La Saine de sa source à la Lemme' (V202), 'L'Ain de la Serpentine à la Saine' (V201) for a total surface area of 511 km².

Affluents

The Saine has six listed tributaries: * le Bief Brideau (rg), 3.7 km on the two communes of Foncine-le-Haut and Chatelblanc * the Sainette (rg), 4.3 km on the two communes of Foncine-le-Bas and Foncine-le-Haut with one tributary: ** le Galavo (rg), 2.4 km on the commune of Foncine-le-Bas alone, with one tributary: *** the Ruisseau du Lac (rg), 4.4 km on the two communes of Foncine-le-Bas and Lac-des-Rouges-Truites, with its source in the Lac des Rouges-Truites. * Ruisseau d'Entre Côtes (rd), 6.1 km in the communes of Foncine-le-Haut and Les Planches-en-Montagne. * La Senge (rg), 3.6 km on the three communes of Foncine-le-Bas, Fort-du-Plasne and Les Planches-en-Montagne, which crosses Lac à la Dame and rises at Fontaine Noire. * Ruisseau de Poutin (rd), 2 km in the commune of Les Planches-en-Montagne alone. * The Lemme (rg), 16.7 km over nine communes and with seven tributaries.

Hydrology

The modulus of the Saine at its confluence with the Ain is 8.5 m/s for a catchment area of just 196 km². The water level flowing through the basin is 1,360 millimeters per year, which is very high, four times higher than the average for France as a whole, and also higher than the average for the Ain basin, which is already very high (1,070 millimeters per year at Chazey-sur-Ain). Its specific discharge, or Qsp, is therefore a solid 43.4 liters per second per square kilometer of basin.

Tourism

Covering more than 1,100 hectares, the upper Saine valley has been classified under the French Environment Code since September 2011 for its picturesque character. Highlights include: * Gorges de la Langouette, Forêt de la Haute Joux, Forêt du Mont Noir, Cascades.

Fishing and ecology

The Saine is a first category river and belongs to the AAPPMA La Langouette, La Sainette and Truite de Baume. The river is home to many

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

. Several power stations have been built in this valley.{{Cite web , title=La Saine , url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http://jeanmichel.guyon.free.fr/monsite/histoire/lasaine/lasaine.htm , access-date=2024-03-15 , website=archive.wikiwix.com

Gallery

File:Source de la saine 39-0623.JPG, source of the Saine at Foncine-le-Haut File:La saine 39-0629.JPG, Saine spring, tumultuous waters. File:Source de la saine 39-0634.JPG, another view of the source of the Saine File:Source de la Saine.jpg, Saine overview

References

Rivers of Jura (department) Tributaries of the Rhône