This morning I did a loop around the bridges near our apartment. The water from the recent flooding has definitely gone down, but the roads along the Seine aren’t open yet.
Yeah, that roadway is still wet and not far above the current river level.
This is the same road, looking the other direction. Still very wet and lots of mud or silt or whatever on the road. But at least you can see the ground under the trees.
The view last Friday (June 3).
The tip of the island is barely above water level.
Sighted in Paris today: honest to goodness blue sky. Distinct shadows. And it was warm. Or at least warmish.
The Seine is still running high, but the water level is slowly dropping and plenty of people are still out getting their photos of the swollen river. The Louvre and the Orsay remain closed due to having to get their artwork stored in the basements moved to upper levels. And closed roads along the river mean traffic is still bad in places. But all things considered, things could be a lot worse. (I’m sure those who run river cruises and have restaurants on boats think things are bad enough.)
Rain.
I know all about rain–I’m from Seattle. I know about storms and floods–in western Washington State they’re not exactly unheard of. But even though there’s water everywhere around Seattle, it doesn’t have a river running right through the middle of town.
Paris does.
And after what has felt like a continuous deluge over the last week, that river is running high–higher than it has since 1982. The Louvre and the Orsay are closed today, moving their artwork out of basement storage. The RER C, which runs along the Seine, isn’t running now. Roads along the river are underwater. All this and strikes all over the country (but that’s another story)!
See those trees? They run along a road just above–er, now below–the Seine near our apartment. Yeah, that road is closed today.
And there’s where the road reemerges.
You’ll need to use a dinghy to get to your houseboat.
Message in a bottle?
The menu boards outside Le Maxim’s aren’t exactly legible anymore…
The Zouave statue indicates how bad the flooding is. In 1910, the water got up to his shoulders!
Another view of the statue.
a year with mona 