In this article, we present a study on the tidal bore dynamics based on the analysis of the database acquired in 2011?during two simultaneous field campaigns in the Seine and Garonne Rivers. We have shown that in the Garonne River, contrary to the common view, undular tidal bore can form for a large majority of tides, even sometimes at neap tide when the river discharge is low. We have identified, from surface elevation measurements, low-steepness, low-frequency undular tidal bores which are not visually observable. Such low-frequency tidal bores have been also identified and characterised for the first time in the Seine River. In this river, the first undulation wave height can be higher than 1?m. We have shown that the secondary wave steepness strongly increases when the Froude number exceeds the critical value Fc. The large-steepness tidal bore regime corresponds to what is commonly termed in French mascaret.