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EARTHQUAKES

Western France residents count the cost of rare 5.8 earthquake

People in the Charente-Maritime and Deux-Sevres departments on Saturday started counting the cost of a rare 5.8-magnitude quake that rocked large parts of western France on Friday, leaving dozens of houses uninhabitable.

Published: 17 June 2023 17:17 CEST
Updated: 18 June 2023 09:11 CEST
Map - earthquake in western France
The Charente-Maritime department, of which La Rochelle is the capital, took the brunt of Friday’s 5.8 magnitude quake, according to the latest reports. Photo by French Central Seismological Bureau

Cracks appeared in several homes in the Charente-Maritime department just north of the major city of Bordeaux while churches were damaged and inhabitants left in urgent need of resettlement.

There were no fatalities, even though the earthquake was felt as far as Rennes in Brittany in the north and two aftershocks were recorded on Saturday morning.

READ ALSO: ‘Very strong’ earthquake hits western France

In the town of La Laigne, many homes were left cracked with stones and tiles on the ground and chimneys looking as they could tumble at any moment.

The fire service declared dozens of houses uninhabitable.

In La Laigne, “135 buildings were affected by the earthquake overall” and “170 people need to be relocated”, said local fire service chief Didier Marcaillou.

“Most of the houses in the centre of the town have been affected to varying degrees. The church is completely unusable. The school will have to be closed as a precaution,” added prefect Nicolas Basselier, the top government-appointed regional official in Charente-Maritime.

A baker in La Laigne for 33 years, Cecile Apperce was at her counter on Friday when the earthquake struck. “I thought it was a plane crash, I went outside, everyone was screaming.”

“The crockery, the cups, the wine, everything crashed down,” said Patricia Chardonne, who was in her 200-year-old house at the time.

Her husband Pascal added: “All the walls have shifted. We have to relocate but don’t know where to go.”

A queue of 50 people had already formed outside the town hall seeking help.

Deputy mayor Bruno Asperti said: “Stone and two-storey houses were the worst affected. One-storey and recently built houses less so.”

‘Unusual earthquake’

The quake was also felt in other areas, including the nearby department of Deux-Sevres where two people were lightly wounded, the emergency services said.

“It is an unusual earthquake on our territory, so I would like to express all my solidarity with the populations who may have been worried,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on a visit to northern France.

“We will obviously ensure that everyone has access to rehousing,” she added.

The national network for seismic surveillance RENASS recorded the quake at 5.3 while the French Central Seismological Bureau (BCSF) put it at 5.8.

Seismologists said the quake was the most significant in the region since 1972.

Earthquakes at or above five magnitude are rare in France, with the last such event taking place in November 2019 in the remote southern Drome and Ardeche departments.

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ENVIRONMENT

The guardian angels of the source of the Seine

The river Seine, the centrepiece of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony in July, starts with a few drops of water in a mossy grotto deep in the woods of central France.

Published: 25 April 2024 09:43 CEST
The guardian angels of the source of the Seine

And not a day goes by without Jacques and Marie-Jeanne Fournier going to check the source only a few paces from their door.

“I go there at least three times a day. It’s part of me,” 74-year-old Marie-Jeanne told AFP.

Her parents were once the guardians of the source, and now that unofficial mantle has fallen on her and husband Jacques.

Barely 60 souls live in the village of Source-Seine in the wooded hills north of Dijon.

By the time the tiny stream has reached the French capital 300 kilometres away it has become a mighty river 200 metres wide.

But some mornings barely a few damp traces are visible at the source beneath the swirling dragonflies. If you scratch about a bit in the grass, however, a small stream quickly forms.

The source — one of two spots where the river officially starts — bubbles up through the remains of an ancient Gallo-Roman temple built about 2,000 years ago, said Jacques Fournier, 73.

Celtic goddess

But you could easily miss this small out-of-the-way valley. There are few signs to direct tourists to the statue of the goddess Sequana, the Celtic deity who gave her name to the river.

In the mid-19th century Napoleon III had a grotto and cave built “where the source was captured to honour the city of Paris and Sequana,” said Marie-Jeanne Fournier.

Her parents moved into a house next to the grotto and its reclining nymph in the early 1950s when she was four years old.

Her father Paul Lamarche was later appointed its caretaker and would regularly welcome visitors. A small stone bridge over the Seine while it is still a stream is named after him.

“Like most children in the village in the 1960s,” Fournier learned to swim in a natural pool in the river just downstream from her home.

“It was part of my identity,” said Fournier, who has lived all her life close to rivers. She retired back to Source-Seine to run a guesthouse because “the Seine is a part of my parents’ legacy”.

The Olympic flame is due to be carried past the site on July 12th on its way to Paris.

The couple will be there to greet it, but as members of the Sources of the Seine Association, they are worried how long the river will continue to rise near their home.

Every year the grotto has become drier and drier as climate change hits the region, where some of France’s finest Burgundy wines are produced.

“My fear is that the (historic) source of the Seine will disappear,” said Marie-Jeanne Fournier. “Perhaps the source will be further downstream in a few years.”

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