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WEATHER

More flood alerts in France as record rainfall hits country

Northern and eastern France remain on high alert for floods after the latest in a series of Atlantic depressions sweeps record-breaking rainfall across the country.

Published: 15 November 2023 09:58 CET
More flood alerts in France as record rainfall hits country
A flooded street in Le Doulac, near Saint-Omer, northern France. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)

The Alpine department of Haute-Savoie and the northern Pas-de-Calais are on the highest possible weather warning – red level, indicating a possible danger to life – in Météo-France’s early bulletin on Wednesday.

In the Alpine areas of Haute-Savoie and Savoie, Météo-France predicted a “serious episode in a period of significant mild weather” on Wednesday, and warned that a month’s worth of rain is expected before the current weather episode passes.

READ ALSO 250 flood-hit areas in northern France declared disaster zones

Forecasters said that the Arve river is at risk of exceptional flooding – reported to be a once-in-a-century flood event – with the peak expected at some time in the morning. 

Numerous roads in the area have been closed because of the risk of landslides, subsidence, and rock falls.

Haute-Savoie departmental council President Martial Saddier told France Bleu: “There has been incredible amounts of snowfall for that time at altitude and we had extremely significant snowmelt. I have been here for 30 years and I have never seen this.”

In Étrembières, some 60 homes were under threat of flooding early this morning, according to reports from France Bleu. Residents were asked to remain on the first floor of their homes wherever possible. Another 30 residents in Reignier-Ésery were evacuated to a neighbouring hamlet, while 50 or so people were evacuated from a campsite in Sallanches on Tuesday evening as a precaution. And an industrial zone in Magland suffered “major damage” because of flooding.

READ ALSO How to ensure your French property is insured for storm damage

The northern Pas-de-Calais area, which has also been battered by heavy rain and storms in recent days, will be downgraded to an orange alert on Wednesday.

Another 10 departments are under orange flood alert: Nord, Doubs, Jura, Rhône, Ain, Isère, Savoie, Drôme, Charente-Maritime and Vendée.

Between October 18th and November 12th, an average of 215.4mm of rain fell across France, Météo-France revealed. The previous recorded cumulative rainfall record for a 26-day period was 196.9mm, recorded between September 21st and October 16th, 1993.

Experts said a “rail of depressions” from the Atlantic is the cause of the heavy rainfall that has affected large parts of the country, the forecaster said, as it warned of another rain episode towards the end of the week.

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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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