What is "hers-vif"

The Hers-Vif ("Live Hers", as opposed to the slower flowing Hers-Mort, "Dead Hers"), also named Grand Hers or simply Hers, is a long river in southern France, right tributary of the Ariège.

The Hers-Vif rises at an elevation of about near the Chioula Pass of the Pyrenees, approximately north of Ax-les-Thermes. It is the major tributary of the Ariège into whose right bank it flows upstream from Cintegabelle in the Haute-Garonne.

It flows some through the Pyrenees, descending to the village of Peyrat, where it reaches a piedmont plain. Its valley widens as it traverses the plain, reaching the medieval city of Mirepoix, which marks the start of its lower valley.

Several rivers flow into it:

• From the Pyrenees: the Lasset; the Fontaine de Fontestorbes; the Touyre
• From the piedmont plain and hills: the Blau and the Douctouyre;
• From the hills of Lauragais and Razès: the Ambronne and the Vixiège.

Departments and towns along its course are:

• Ariège: Prades, Bélesta, La Bastide-sur-l'Hers, Mirepoix, Mazères
• Aude: Comus, Chalabre
• Haute-Garonne: Calmont