Dropt

The Dropt /drot/ is a right affluent of the the Garonne, in area Aquitaine.

Geography

Dropt is born close to Capdrot (the Dordogne) at an altitude to 160 Mr. His basin extends on 1  300 km ² approximately in the solid mass ranging between the large valleys of the Batch and the the Dordogne (Guyenne).

It is thrown in the the Garonne today with Caudrot (the Gironde), at an altitude of 6 m, downstream from Réole. There is little still, Drot joined a meander earlier, with Casseuil.

Name

The historical name of the river is the Drot , in Latin Drotius, Drogatus …, of a preceltic root * Dur- “river”. It is at the 18th century, that was introduced the C-W communication Dropt with a p nonetymological (as in Rupt).

The Gazetteer and administrative of France (edition of 1892) warns: “None the old Latin forms: Drotius , Drucum or Frenchwomen: Droth (1004), Drot (1053), Droz (1095), does not authorize the p of which one affuble often the name of this river by writing it Dropt . ”

Today the two C-Ws communication Drot and Dropt cohabit but it is the second which enjoys prestige to be reproduced on the charts.

It is noticed that the river takes its source with Capdrot ( course-Drot “source of Drot”).

Departments and crossed main cities

Hydrography

For the needs for agriculture, an exemplary installation of the basin was carried out with creation on affluents of lakes tanks of a full capacity of 15,1 million m3. These reserves make it possible to support the low water level S of summer and to attenuate the Crue S of autumn and spring.

The catchment area of Dropt constitutes an important site for two animal species (source: Natura 2000):

  • the Mink of Europe, mammal (Mustélidé) whose current location is extremely alarming (only 7 departments of South-west seem still occupied by the species)
  • the Toxostome, fish (Cyprinidé) with the statute with dimensions “vulnerable” in France

Principal affluents

  • (D) the Bournègue (20,3 km), coming from Nojals-and-Clotte

  • (D) Escourou or Lescouroux (15.9 km) upstream of It Sauvetat-of-Dropt the
  • (D) the Banège (17,6 km) which sprinkles Issigeac
  • (G) the Dourdenne (24,1 km) which sprinkles Miramont-with-Guyenne
  • (D) the Dourdèze with Duras
  • (D) the Vignague (25,5 km) which sprinkles Sauveterre-with-Guyenne
(D) Right Bank; (G) left bank.

Inheritance

  • historical heritage: the country houses of Dropt :

Dropt materializes of the 13th century at the 15th century the border - that the Ch.Higounet historian qualified “border of tension” - between Fief S of powerful the Counts de Toulouse and of the Ducs of Aquitaine - kings d' Angleterre. The two camps adopt a strategy of frontier marking out by the creation of new cities on Dropt, of the “country houses”: French country houses of Castillonnès (1259), Villeréal (1267), Eymet (1270), English country houses of Monségur (1265), Monpazier (1284).

  • river inheritance: the Mill S of Dropt :

Dropt counts 66 stoppings for 75 mills, of which some strengthened (mill of Bagas). The mills still in activity are rare (three or four): stripped their machines, the majority were transformed after restoration into main homes or secondary.

Downstream from Eymet, the stoppings comprise lock S, vestiges of the time when Dropt was navigable (conventional the Joseph Lakanal was project superintendent for the revolutionary period)

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