Odet
The Odet (French pronunciation: [ɔdɛ]; Breton: Oded) is a river in western France (Finistère department), which runs from Saint-Goazec (near Leuhan, in the Montagnes Noires of Brittany) into the Atlantic Ocean at Bénodet. The name of the town of Bénodet comes from the river; ben means river mouth in Breton.
| Odet | |
|---|---|
The Odet at high tide | |
| Location | |
| Country | France |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Brittany |
| Mouth | |
• location | Atlantic Ocean |
• coordinates | 47°51′45″N 4°6′9″W |
| Length | 62.7 km (39.0 mi) |
| Basin size | 724 km2 (280 sq mi) |
The river runs past, or through, the towns of Bénodet, Combrit, Plomelin, Quimper, Ergué-Gabéric, Briec-de-l'Odet, Langolen, Coray, Trégourez, Leuhan and Saint-Goazec. It is 62.7 km (39.0 mi) long and its basin area is 724 km2 (280 sq mi).
The river is popular with kayakers.
In 2021, an article published in the Bulletin of the French Prehistoric Society reported that archaeologists had interpreted the Saint-Bélec slab, a 4,000-year-old stone rediscovered in 2014, as a three-dimensional representation of the Odet valley. This would make the Saint-Bélec slab the oldest known map of a territory in the world. According to the authors, the map probably wasn’t used for navigation, but rather to show the political power and territorial extent of a local ruler’s domain of the early Bronze age. Measures of the slab were 2.2 metres long and 1.53 metres wide.