Geographical framework of the Rhone The territory of Rhone-Alpes is structured since the beginning of the Tertiary era by the Saone and the Rhone. This former Miocene gulf was disarranged by the alpine and Jura folding, then modelled by the quaternary glaciation. If the eastern border of the Massif Central is rather homogeneous, well differentiated units of relief succeed one another in the East : Terres Froides and Chambarans at the foothill of the Alps, sedimentary Pre-Alps (Chablais, Bornes, Bauges, Chartreuse, Vercors and Diois), the external crystalline massifs (Mont Blanc, Beaufortain, Belledonne). Streams completed this work : i) the torrents of the zone «cévenole» marked by the violent confrontation of the mediterranean and oceanic...