Ardèche in the context of Montgolfier brothers

The Loire (/lwɑːr/ LWAR, US also /luˈɑːr/ loo-AR, French: [lwaʁ] ; Occitan: Léger [ˈledʒe]; Arpitan: Lêre; Breton: Liger [ˈliːɡɛr]; Latin: Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of 1,006 kilometres (625 mi), it drains 117,054 km (45,195 sq mi), more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône.

It rises in the southeastern quarter of the French Massif Central in the Cévennes range (in the department of Ardèche) at 1,350 m (4,430 ft) near Mont Gerbier de Jonc; it flows north through Nevers to Orléans, then west through Tours and Nantes until it reaches the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean) at Saint-Nazaire. Its main tributaries include the rivers Nièvre, Maine and the Erdre on its right bank, and the rivers Allier, Cher, Indre, Vienne, and the Sèvre Nantaise on the left bank.

Privas (French pronunciation: [pʁiva] ; Occitan: Privàs [pɾiˈβas], also Catalan: [pɾiˈbas]) is a city located in France, in the department of Ardèche.

With its 8,465 inhabitants (2019), it is the least populated prefecture (capital of a department).

Castellane (French pronunciation: [kastɛlan]; Provençal Occitan: Castelana) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. With a population of 1,470 (2019), it has the distinction of being France's least populated subprefecture, ahead of Largentière in Ardèche.

Its inhabitants are referred to as Castellanais (masculine) and Castellanaises (feminine).

The Cévennes (/seɪˈvɛn/ say-VEN, French: [sevɛn] ; Occitan: Cevenas IPA: [seβeno̞s]) is a cultural region and range of mountains in south-central France, on the south-east edge of the Massif Central. It covers parts of the départements of Ardèche, Gard, Hérault and Lozère. Rich in geographical, natural, and cultural significance, portions of the region are protected within the Cévennes National Park, the Cévennes Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO), as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Causses and the Cévennes, Mediterranean agro-pastoral Cultural Landscape. The area has been inhabited since 400,000 BCE and has numerous megaliths which were erected beginning around 2500 BCE. As an agriculturally-rich area, but not a suitable location for cities, the Cévennes developed a wide diversity of pastoral systems, including transhumance. The irrigation and road networks put in place in the early Middle Ages for these pastoral systems are still in use today.

The name Cévennes comes from the Gaulish Cebenna. As of 1999, there were 165,707 inhabitants in the region, with 20,847 living inside the UNESCO protected zone. Inhabitants of the region are known as Cévenols, from the adjective Cévenol (fem. Cévenole).

Mont Gerbier de Jonc is a mountain of volcanic origin located in the Massif Central in France. It is made of a type of rock called phonolite. It rises to an altitude of 1,551 m (5,089 ft), and its base contains three springs that are the source of the Loire, France's longest river. It is the second most-visited site in the département of Ardèche, after the Ardèche Gorges.

Mont Gerbier de Jonc was formed 8 million years ago when a volcano erupted molten phonolite lava. The lava was too viscous to flow far and it cooled to form a lava dome of phonolite rock in the crater of the volcano. The lava dome has columnar jointing, which formed during cooling of the lava. The volcanic cone containing the lava dome was later eroded away, exposing the lava dome.

Isère (US: /iːˈzɛər/ ee-ZAIR; French: [izɛʁ] ; Arpitan: Isera; Occitan: Isèra, Occitan pronunciation: [iˈsɛɾa]) is a landlocked department in the southeastern French region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019. Its prefecture is Grenoble. It borders Rhône to the northwest, Ain to the north, Savoie to the east, Hautes-Alpes to the south, Drôme and Ardèche to the southwest and Loire to the west.