Loire: A Cultural HistoryGustave Flaubert called the Loire the most French of French rivers. It is the longest river in France and the most varied in scenery and moods. Beginning as a mountain stream in the Ardche, it issues, 630 miles later, into the Atlantic beyond the great modern port of St. Nazaire. Small and rapid at first, the Loire runs through dark volcanic hills; further downstream it becomes the broad, slower river of sandy islands, poplars, and chteaux and of the