Page "Ardèche" Paragraph 14

The department, corresponding to the ancient province of Vivarais, is part of the current region of Rhône-Alpes ( Rôno-Arpes in Arpitan ), of the administrative division of Languedoc and is surrounded by the French departments of Drôme,: Vaucluse,: Gard,: Lozère,: Haute-Loire,: Loire and Isère.

It is a land of great contrasts: at the lowest it is at a mere 40 metres of elevation above sea level at the point at which the Ardèche river flows into the Rhône ( in the south east of the department ) up to 1, 754 metres at Mont Mézenc ( Centre-west ), it is bordered to the east by the length of the Rhône valley for 140 km and to the west by the high plateaus of the Massif Central.