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Geography

The Flowering ash takes its source on the hills of the Perche to Aunou-on-Flowering ash, in the North-East of the Forêt of Écouves, close to Sées to 240 meters of altitude, in the Département of the Flowering ash (61). It runs, in direction of the North-West, in the plain Calcaire of Argentan, then superimposes its valley sinuous and escarpée in the Granit S of Athis and the Schiste S and sandstone of the Suisse Norman forming picturesque throats. Of Putanges to the forest of Grimbosq, the Flowering ash traverses its perforated heroic in an environment of high and wild hillocks (mount of Anchor, Cerisy mount), tracing a framed deep furrow of impressive rock faces (rocks of the Parks, rocks of the Swell, Sugar loaf) close to Clécy. Many a mills and sites of ford égayent the bottom of the valley. Just downstream from Putanges, at the entry of the throats, the stopping of Rabodanges was built, in 1960, to regularize the flow of the river and to produce electricity (power of 6.500 kw), creating an artificial lake a 7 km length. In the last part of its course, after having crossed, close to Thury-Harcourt, the loop of Hom and its schists, witnesses of the old chain cadomienne from 650 to 540 million years, the Flowering ash circumvents the Cinglais, crosses the plain of Caen before joining the Manche with Ouistreham, in the Département of the Apple-brandy (14).

In Caen, a small water arm, Noë, is detached from the river upstream of Vaucelles, towards Montaigu, and crosses the Meadow. It is then joined by the Odon and is thrown in the principal arm of the Flowering ash at the end of the Montalivet course. Since 1845, the course downstream of Odon was channeled to form the Saint-Pierre Basin. Since 1860, Noë is covered between the Grusse City and the Courtonne place. Since the years 1930, Large Odon joined Noë while skirting the boulevards of belt in the north of the Meadow.

Between Caen and the estuary, the course of the Flowering ash is doubled, on about fifteen kilometers, by a channel which can borrow of the ocean liners. This water way was inaugurated, in 1857, by Napoleon III and the Impératrice Eugenie. The wearing of Caen, composed of several basins located near the center town (basin Saint-Pierre, new basin, basin of Calix), is not any more very active today; the essence of the traffic is now concentrated in the outer harbor of Ouistreham.

Hydrology

The Flowering ash drains an important basin, a few kilometers upstream of Caen). The principal affluents of the Flowering ash (of the downstream upstream) are:

the Odon (47 km) with Caen (left bank)
the Laize (32 km) with Clinchamps-on-Flowering ash (Right Bank)
the Guigne (11 km) with Amayé-on-Flowering ash (left bank)
the Noireau (43 km) with Bridge-in Ouilly (left bank)
the Reopens (42 km) with Mesnil-Villement (left bank)
the Baize (26 km) with Isles-Bardel (Right Bank)
the Maire (16 km) with Scutcher (left bank)
the Udon (28 km) with Scutcher (left bank)
the Cance (26 km) with Scutcher (left bank)
the Houay (13 km) with Narrow part (Right Bank)
the Baize (15 km) with Nickel silver (left bank)
the RUE (30 km) with Nickel silver (Right Bank)
the Gift (30 km) with Médavy (Right Bank)
Thouanne (18 km) with Mortrée (left bank)
the Sennevière (14 km) with Mortrée (left bank)
the daN (left bank)

History

Installations: the low valley of the Flowering ash

The lower course of the Flowering ash has been, for more than two centuries, the object of the attention of the men and the place of many installations intended to effectively connect Caen to the sea.

At the end of the 18th century, the inhabitants of the area were at the same time to fight against the stranding of the estuary which threatened the maritime outlet of the large city Norman and protected this space from possible attacks of the English marine (many defense works - fears S, body of guard - were thus built). The economic concern carried it and a project of drain, having for objective to remove the influence of the tides in the low valley of the Flowering ash, was proposed by engineer Cachin since 1798. This meticulous study proposed to rectify the course of the river, avoiding the multiple sinuosities, with an direct access for the ships of average tonnage with the basin located with the foot of the ramparts of Caen, and the construction of an outer harbor with Ouistreham). The new water way measured 14 kilometers, had a width of 15 meters and a depth exceeding the 5 meters of which a part was exported and establishment of an iron and steel industry, in 1912, with Mondeville (Company of the Blast furnaces and Steel-works of Caen, then, in 1924, Metallurgical Société of Normandy or SMN, finally Unimetal Normandy in 1981) changed the nature of the traffic and was accompanied by the construction of new basins and the installation, in 1917, of shipyards with Blainville-on-Flowering ash, 7 kilometers in the North-East of Caen at the edge of the channel.

The Flowering ash thus supported an intense traffic during the inter-war period and until in the years 1970. The competition of foreign iron caused the decline of the local production and the end of exports before the permanent closure of the last mine in 1989 with Saint-Clearly-of-Halouze. The shipyards had already closed in 1954. It took again the old projects and proposed to go beyond, by connecting the Flowering ash to the basin of the the Loire. This eminent character drew the picture of two channels likely to put in communication the two catchment areas:

a channel of the Flowering ash to the Mayenne, establishing a communication between Caen and Angers, while passing by the Bridge-with Ouilly, Domfront, Mayenne and Laval. This work would have had a 160 kilometers length and costs 10.945.000 francs, it would have taken its origin in Caen, where the Flowering ash is navigable, and would have led to Laval, where Mayenne starts to be it. The stated expenditure included/understood installations to be carried out on the Flowering ash, of Caen to the sea, and on Mayenne, of Laval to the Loire, constitutes an exceptional natural environment because permanently reorganized by the natural forces, but it is also about a space threatened by the human activities: drain of the Flowering ash, installation of the outer harbor of Ouistreham, tourist development of Merville-Franceville-Beach, fortifications (site of the unloading of 1944). However the contact of the river and the sea multiplied the mediums and landscapes (dune cords, mudholes, salt-water marshes, wet meadows, herbus, roselières) supporting the diversity of the flora and fauna, the maritime Aster, the Argousier or the Obione and the Salicorne
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