Bièvre (river)

The Bièvre in Fresnes

The Bièvre is a river in France by the Region Ile- de -France, the left and south ends in Paris in the Seine.

Etymology

The name derives from the Gallic word * bèbros developed, which is attested Beber in the form of the late Latin and related to an Indo-European root from which also the German word has developed beavers. From rodent, the name was transferred to the inhabited by him waters.

Course

The 33 km long left tributary of the Seine rises in the Vallon des Bouviers, a small valley at Guyancourt near Versailles, and crosses the departments of Yvelines, Essonne, Hauts -de -Seine and Val -de- Marne in the densely populated outskirts of Paris. From the city of Antony the Bièvre now flows underground and reaches Paris under the so-called postern of Peupliers, a directory named after the earlier growing poplars there sally port of the former fortifications. The last few kilometers of their journey finally sets the Bièvre back through the underground of the 13th and the 5th arrondissement and opens at the Quai d' Austerlitz in the sump of the sewers of the Rive Gauche, which in turn empties into the large main pool of Sewers, which finally the Seine dehydrated.

Places on the river

• Guyancourt
• Buc
• Jouy -en- Josas
• Bièvres
• Igny
• Verrières -le- Buisson
• Massy
• Antony
• Fresnes
• L' Haÿ -les -Roses
• Bourg- la -Reine
• Cachan
• Arcueil
• Gentilly
• Paris

History

Upriver remained the banks of the Beaver River, apart from the fellings of the abbeys of Saint- Germain -des- Prés, Sainte -Geneviève and Saint -Victor and the Coming Saint -Jean -de- Latran and the 1686 construction authorized by Louvois an aqueduct in the then royal domain of Buc, to feed the fountains of the Palace of Versailles, to the 18th century virtually untouched. The Bièvre was lined with numerous wash-houses, powered several mills and crossed in Jouy -en- Josas the grounds of the Toile de Jouy cloth manufactory of Christophe- Philippe Oberkampf.

In the suburban area, the banlieue, the middle course of the river between Antony and Gentilly from the 1900 first only partially channeled ( Gentilly ) and in the subsoil laid ( Arcueil ), in 1930 ( Cachan ) was until 1956 ( Arcueil ) finally completely sunk and covered. Complex the history of the lower river to the present area of Paris.

Geology

Before the Quaternary (the current ice age ) the Seine flowed through that of modern Paris area in a larger offset to the north arch of the foot of the hill of Belleville, Montmartre and Chaillot in about the course of today's Grands Boulevards to the Gare Saint- Lazare and the Rues de la Boétie and Marboeuf followed up to the Pont de l' Alma. On its left bank the Bièvre orbited the Butte aux Cailles in the West, formed in the environment of the Rue de la Glacière numerous ponds, most at the lower end of Rue Mouffetard the Montagne Sainte -Geneviève hill later called in an easterly direction. From there, she dug her bed on the grounds of the Botanical Gardens and the Gare d' Austerlitz to the Chaillot Hill, where they led to the Seine.

When the Seine, was looking for a shorter route over the river bed of the Bièvre in the Quaternary, formed on the right bank between the old and the new course of the river Seine, the Marais. The confluence of the two seas, who was now at the height of the Rue de Bièvre, shifted over the centuries at the height of the Pont de la Tour Nelle and finally in the 12th century in the area of ​​Gare d' Austerlitz. It was formed in the environment of today's railway station on the left bank of a swamp, which was gradually filled up by river deposits, but is considered the area - like the Marais district - today as at risk of flooding.

Planned developments

The upper course of the river Bièvre is a popular recreational area. In the suburbs the Efforts are being made to expose the river again and integrate as Coulee Verte in the network of green walking and cycling routes. The first route with a length of about one-kilometer- opened in 2000 between Verrières -le- Buisson and Massy. The project is coordinated by the Syndicat d' cleansing de la Vallée de la Bièvre in close cooperation with the Syndicat Intercommunal d' Aménagement de l' Agglomà Parisienne.