Here we present a strategy to obtain a reliable hydrological simulation over France with the ORCHIDEE land surface model. The model is forced by the SAFRAN atmospheric reanalysis at 8 km resolution and hourly time steps from 1959 to 2020 and by a high-resolution DEM (around 1.3 km in France). Each SAFRAN grid cell is decomposed into a graph of hydrological transfer units (HTUs) based on the higher-resolution DEM to better describe lateral water movements. In particular, it is possible to accurately locate 3507 stations among the 4081 stations collected from the national hydrometric network HydroPortail (filtered to drain an upstream area larger than 64 km2). A simple trial-and-error calibration is conducted by modifying selected parameters of ORCHIDEE to reduce the biases of the simulated water budget compared to the evapotranspiration products (the GLEAM and FLUXCOM datasets) and the HydroPortail observations of river discharge. The simulation that is eventually preferred is extensively assessed with classic goodness-of-fit indicators complemented by trend analysis at 1785 stations (filtered to have records for at least 8 entire years) across France. For example, the median bias of evapotranspiration is −0.5 % against GLEAM (−4.3 % against FLUXCOM), the median bias of river discharge is 6.3 %, and the median Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) of square-rooted river discharge is 0.59. These indicators, however, exhibit a large spatial variability, with poor performance in the Alps and the Seine sedimentary basin. The spatial contrasts and temporal trends of river discharge across France are well represented with an accuracy of 76.4 % for the trend sign and an accuracy of 62.7 % for the trend significance. Although it does not yet integrate human impacts on river basins, the selected parameterization of ORCHIDEE offers a reliable historical overview of water resources and a robust configuration for climate change impact analysis at the nationwide scale of France.