La Foose Dionne at Tonnerre is a huge upsurge of water. It's a spring, in other words. Part of the upsurge is fed by a river that flows underground for 27 miles before it resurfaces at Tonnerre, and part of it is rainwater from fissures and caverns in the limestone formation under and around Tonnerre itself. That's what I read on Wikipedia. The annual average volume of water that comes up out of the ground every second is about 300 liters — that's 82 U.S. gallons (68 British gallons).
Over the centuries the town of Tonnerre grew up around the Fosse Dionne. In the mid-1700s the spring was turned into a public lavoir (a kind of "wash house" on a stream or river where people would come to do their laundry by hand). The flow of water from the spring can increase to 3,000 liters per second when the weather turns rainy and local rivers reach flood stage.
It’s awesome! As I said in a comment yesterday, la Fosse Dionne is akin to the Fontaine de Vaucluse.
ReplyDeleteIt's even called a source vauclusienne.
DeleteAs are the headwaters of the Loiret River which is a résurgence of the Loire River.
DeleteWow. Something to see if I ever get back to France.
ReplyDeleteLa Foose Dionne is remarkable. I would have had no idea it was there if just looking at the pictures of the town.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of like the spring in Bath, UK? Is the fosse warm or cold?
Wow, very cool and very interesting.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting!
ReplyDeleteRemarkable!
ReplyDeleteWhere does the water go after the Earth expels it out? I see it goes between buildings or something but then where?
ReplyDelete