The Arve river flows for approximately 100km (62 miles) through France, in the département of Haute-Savoie, and (for a few kilometers) in Switzerland. It is a left tributary of the Rhône.

Rising in the Graian Alps, close to the Swiss border, it receives water from the many glaciers of the Chamonix valley (mainly the Mer de Glace) before flowing north-west into the Rhône below Geneva.

Due to one of this river's tributaries, the Rhône, having a different concentration of silt suspended in it's waters, creating a view similar to that of the mouth of the Amason River.

The Arve flows through the following towns: Chamonix, Sallanches, Cluses, Bonneville, Annemasse, and Geneva.