The river Valserine () is a tributary of the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

that flows for from the Col de la Faucille in the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerla ...

to its confluence with the

Bellegarde-sur-Valserine Bellegarde-sur-Valserine (, literally ''Bellegarde on Valserine''; ) is a former Communes of France, commune in the Ain Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Eastern France. On 1 January 2019, ...

. The Valserine Valley has great charm; it includes the Pont des Pierres that spans the river between Montanges and Mulaz (in the commune of Confort), as well as the Pertes de la Valserine just north of Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, a

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

in which during the dry season the Valserine runs underground. As the river flows through the village of Mijoux, it marks the border between

Ain Ain (, ; ) is a French department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...

(a department in the

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (; AURA) or ; or ; . is a Regions of France, region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes. The new region came into e ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

) and Jura (in

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 ...

). The name ''Valserine'' stems from a univerbation of ''val'' + ''serine'', where ''val'' is an

ellipsis The ellipsis (, plural ellipses; from , , ), rendered , alternatively described as suspension points/dots, points/periods of ellipsis, or ellipsis points, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot,. According to Toner it is difficult to establish when t ...

(omission) of '' ruisseau de val'' (valley stream), and ''serine'' is likely a hydronym from a different river, from the alternate spelling ''

serein The Serein () is a river of eastern France. It is the main waterway of the Chablis wine district in Burgundy. It is long. The Serein is not navigable. Origin of the name ''Serein'' is the French word for "serene". This may reflect the placid n ...

'', itself derived from Latin '' serēnus''.

See also

References

Further reading