Canoeing on River the Tarn, France »

The Tarn is a magnificent river located in southwestern France. Especially around Gorges du Tarn, the river has beautiful surroundings with nature and gorges. During our trip to France, we stayed five nights around Gorges du Tarn from which we went canoeing on one day: one of the highlights of this area! In this article I’ll tell you some more.

About River the Tarn

The Tarn River flows through Southwestern France: it has its source south of Mont Lozère in the Cevennes at a height of 1575 meters and has a total length of 375 kilometers. At the end, the Tarn River joins the Garonne River below Moissac. Especially the area around Gorges du Tarn (between Florac and Millau) is a very impressive and popular area to visit. Along the river in this environment, you can find a diversity of campgrounds and cosy towns.

About Canoë Méjean

If you happen to stay around the small town of Sainte-Enimie (we stayed at Camping Yellow Village Nature et Rivière), it’s definitely a recommendation to book your canoeing trip at Canoë Méjean. They offer a diversity of possibilities and something for everyone. You can easily book your preferred package online through the website, paying by credit card.

Packages and options

Canoë Mejean offer a diversity of options when it comes to water activities. Looking at canoeing specifically, there are routes in the range of 6 to 42 kilometers long, from which the 42 kilometers route has a length of two days. The prices go from € 16,- to € 62,-, depending on the length of your route.

Canoë Mejean starts at Montbrun and goes all the way to Les Vignes. Between those two places, there are several routes. We did the route from Sainte-Enimie to La Malène (13 kilometers). Below I’ll tell you some more about our experience.

Our canoe adventure

The weather forecasts weren’t that great for the day we planned to go canoeing. In the end, it wasn’t that bad at all! There wasn’t much rain and the wind was not that hard luckily. When we arrived at Canoë Mejean, we had a nice welcome. We showed our confirmation and someone explained to us all we needed to know for our canoe trip.

He advised us to put our bags in the box we could bring on the canoe, we agreed on an approximate time they’d pick us up again and afterwards, we started our journey by canoe.

Although the water of the Tarn River was quite low (sometimes we got stuck between the rocks), it was a really beautiful route to canoe. There are some quiet parts, but also some parts with rapids, which I found extra fun! On the way, we could easily stop at some rocky beaches to eat or drink something.

The environment of the Tarn river is beautifully green and there are some magnificent rock formations which is absolutely a stunning image! Along the route, we came across some campings, but also along a few towns. See above the pictures: once in a while we went underneath a bridge or across a small waterfall.

We finished our 13-kilometers route in, approximately, three hours. The canoe route isn’t that difficult and easily to do for everyone who likes canoeing. If you don’t canoe much, I think the 13-kilometers route is a great option.

At the finish in La Malène, we needed to wait or a bit before they picked us up, but that wasn’t a problem at all. The employee of Canoë Mejean brought us and the canoes back to the starting point, from where we could get back in the car and to our camping.

If you’re travelling to Gorges du Tarn, it’s absolutely recommended to go canoeing on the Tarn River! I really found it one of the highlights of my trip to France.

Author: Tamara