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Good morning. Just wondering if anybody has brought young children canoeing on any of the rivers in the ardeche (when I say young I mean around 5 yrs old). All of the relevant websites seem to indicate a minimum age of 7 (on all of the rivers) and able to swim. I was hoping there might be some calmer routes.  We will be staying at Les Ranchisses for a week. Any advice welcome, Thanks.

Not the Ardeche, however when we went to the Dordogne none of the canoe hire places would allow a child under 6 to go in one of their canoes.   I know my 5 year old is liable to wriggle and could easily slide out of a canoe, if your glance was distracted, even for a second. For the sake of leaving it a couple of years so it was safe, I'd leave it and stick to paddling, stone skimming, looking for fish and maybe supervised swimming with parents, it's not worth the risk IMO. Also even the calmer rivers are fairly fast flowing at times, you might not stand a chance if a non swimmer or weak swimmer fell in.

If you're that keen I guess you could buy a small canoe and pull her/him through the water whilst wading?

We canoed the Ardeche when ours were about 12 and had experienced canoeing with school adventure trips and with us on the Dordogne.  There is no comparison with the Dordogne - personally we would never do it again.  Spectacular scenery in places but quite dangerous in places and not a paricularly enjoyable experience either for us or the kids.  I'm sure that some people think it is absolutley fantastic - but I speak as I ffound it.

We didn't see any really young children on the river,  we did see several people in the water - having capsized!!  This was from Pont D'Arc going east.

Thanks for the advice. We brought him down the Dordogne several times last year with no problems, it's a very gentle river (in summer). But I knew the Ardeche might be a different kettle of fish. Is there rapids on the shorter trip (this will be for myself and my 10 year old) ie. would you need to be a skilled canoer? Thanks

Im a fairly experienced canoeist having paddled the lower Zambezi for 8 days,the congo in Zaire from Bumba to lisala,parts of the murray in Aus to name but a few and having done the overnight trip on the Ardeches wouldn,t take a child that younge and unable to swim.There are little rapids,probably grade 2 maybe a very weak grade 3.Id wait until he can properly enjoy the trip.

Not sure on the shorter trip as its quite a few years since I visited and am not sure were you mean,if the water levels are modest and the 10 year old is competant in the water then maybe o.k but you must judge the conditions there,the Ardeche in spring can be preatty intresting but during a dry summer you may have to get out and pull the canoe.

When we went none of the companies would take under 7 and some don't take under 9 as I recall. The rapids,as everyone says can be a bit hairy..and some of the deep and still bits do have that bottomless eerieness about them. I'd have flipped if I'd gone in during those stretches let alone one of the children.

On the main set of rapids I was screaming "Save my child",when we were being forced under into some sort of cave thing and there was a young woman capsized and sort of wedged in under us who was struiggling to get up. However my child was 15 at the time, kept her head and she did the rescuing of us all by some smart manoevering with the paddles and the walls of the cave. Goodness know's who I was shouting at to do the saving anyway, OH, younger child and the lifeguards which were posted at this particular rapid just watched and laughed! I should have realised something was amiss when the locals started donning tin helmets about five minutes upstream!!

Anyway..there are other things to do...lots of grottes( caves) with illuminations etc, which ours have always enjoyed, they are some parc de ariel ( not sure if thats the right words) with rope bridges and rope slides etc with courses for older and younger children, there are little river beaches where you can get some swimming and inflatables going if you watch the current and pick a place where there is a natural still.

Last time we went to the Ardeche, our youngest would have been about 8 and eldest 15. The site had a pool which kept them occupied too beacuse it was extremely hot so the pace was a lot slower than some hols.

I would like to add, my husband & I  are both reasonably fit & very river aware, but had a very scary incident on the Ardeche two years ago, not helped by the rented canoe sinking though lack of bouncy (Which we where unaware of until to late) Please don't take your little ones until much older & then start with the shortest of routes, then you can judge for yourselves.

Better still, try the tarn that's much quieter.

I agree, definitely don't take such a little one on the Ardeche.  We've canoed it several times now, and it's not suitable for small children.  We've done it in hire canoes and in our own inflatables. When the river is high the flow is very fast indeed, and when it's not high there are lots of nasty rocks which can trap a canoe.  We've seen small children fall out - and indeed at the end of last year Mr Val A leapt in to pull out a little one who was already 100 yards away from her father when he got to the side.  Dad was at the other side pulling out the canoe, and was quite frantic.  Generally there are lots of people around the rapids, usually including some canoe fanatics who stay around - but lots of people have to be rescued. 

A couple of years ago we witnessed a drowning, when a man with learning disabilities became trapped under overhanging rocks.  He wasn't canoeing - just on the beach below the Pont D'Arc, but there's a bend and the current can take you under the rocks.

You'll find none of the hire companies (the respectable ones) will hire out a canoe for such a little one, but if you have your own you could try sections of the Chassezac near St Alban Auriolles, or the section of the Beaume near to La Baume.  There's also canoeing on the Ceze which is a little further away - and much more gentle.