Floods on the Seine are documented as far back as the 4th century. The first noted flood was in 358 and a sizeable flood was measured in January of 583 as historian Gregoire de Tours mentioned in his 6th-century book on the history of the Franks. The landscape of Paris was far different back then but the buildings would not have withstood any sizeable flow of water.
The river Seine is much more than what you see flowing down the center of Paris. Beginning in Burgundy it runs 485 miles to Le Havre where it empties into the English Channel. Four dams control the water and three other rivers feed into it including the Aube, Marne, and Yonne.
In 1206 half of the city was under water and the shrine of Sainte Genevieve was brought in a procession to Notre Dame in hopes that the saint could once again save the city. After mass, she returned up the hill to Saint Etienne de Mont but not before crossing the Petit Pont and bidding adieu to the priests and relics of Saint Marcel. Just after she crossed, the bridge was struck and fell into the Seine. No one was hurt and within an hour the clouds cleared and the sun returned to Paris. The Petit Pont was destroyed ten times between 886 and 1185 due to floods.
1280
The flood destroyed the Pont au Change
December 1296
All the bridges were marred or destroyed
Adding to protecting the city streets of Paris in 1312 the walls of the Quai des Grands Augustin of the left bank were built up. In 1369 the Quai de la Mégisserie kept the center a little bit safer. In 1578 building of the Pont Neuf began and the walls were enforced to hold the new stone bridge. In the 1870s the renovation by Haussmann replaced and added 15 bridges; in the 1960s the expressway of the river bank opened. These measures were far better to control the water than the sandy water edges prior to the 14th century but would be no match for the floods of 1658 and 1910.
Gaging of the level of the Seine began in 1649 from the Pont de la Tournell. The same bridge Sainte Genevive stands and guards the city she loves. Today it is measured from the Pont d’Austerlitz. Although most use the statue that stands in the water as the unofficial gage.
Standing on the eastern side of the Pont de l’Alma that crosses the Seine closer to the Eiffel Tower is the Crimean War soldier Zouave by Georges Diebolt. Created in 1856 and modeled on soldier André-Louis Gody who Napoleon III personally selected. When the Seine swelled in January 1910 it wasn’t just Zouave that stood submerged in the water. There were four statues, two on each side of the bridge when replaced in 1860 and they were actually placed closer to the normal water level of the Seine. If the same water measurements I mention per day were reached today we would be in a world of hurt as he sits almost 3 feet higher on the pilar than he did in 1910.
In 1970 the bridge was restored and three of the statues were removed. The Hunter can now be found in the Bois de Vincennes, the Gunner in La Fère, and the Grenadier in Dijon.
1658
The Seine rose to 8.96m above normal and the highest the Seine has ever been and there were eight more floods that year.
After the 1658 flood, a plan was put into place to protect Paris and was influenced by Louis XIV. A new canal from the Marne to Paris was planned and a river that would help alleviate some water was going to be dug from the Marne to the Seine but neither of these happened. In 1663 there were over 10,000 meters of drains and in less than 200 years it swelled to almost 80,000 meters.
In 1879 it was another disaster that was created this time by ice. After a very cold November and the start of December, on the night of the 10th, the temperature dropped to a frigid negative 11 degrees Fahrenheit causing the Seine to freeze. In an attempt to break up the ice dynamite was used sending thick shards down the river and destroying everything in its path. Worried boatmen tried to unsuccessfully move their boats but the ice trapped their boats and barges and no match for the ice, wine barrels, and discarded furniture and wood from crashing into them.
1910
The summer of 1909 was a very wet one in France which led to a lot of snow in the mountains in November and December. New Year’s Day 1910 was quite warm in Paris. 43 degrees and sunny was quite odd, 103 years later, this year, it was 59 degrees. While the warm temps and blue skies were lovely in Paris, off the coast of Brittany a low-pressure system with lots of rain was moving in. The Seine had already risen three times since the start of December but had receded and was never in a dangerous state until the last week of January.
The warmer temperatures held on the first two weeks of the new year and all the mountain snow and ice that arrived in November and December began to melt and flow into the rivers. While Parisians were going about their early January days the smaller villages up and down the river were starting to see the water rising higher and higher each day.
On January 21, 50 miles SE of Paris the coal town of Lorry was in dire straits. The rain had been none stop but it wasn’t a flood of water that they needed to be afraid of. On this night as the miners returned home and were sitting with their families having dinner a loud noise erupted through the town and everything began to shake. On the nearby hillside, the ground gave way sending down tons of mud and debris and crushing homes and people.
Further away in Troyes where Genevieve had gone to get grain to save the starving people of Paris the banks of the river were overflowing with water as it destroyed the homes and buildings in its path. As the news spread back to Paris and the water rose, most people stood on one of the many bridges and didn’t think it could ever happen there. Just a few hours later they wouldn’t have the same cavalier thoughts.
Back in Paris, it was the job of one man, Edmond Maillet to calculate and watch the water levels. In over twenty years he never saw a rise over 5 meters at the Pont d’Austerlitz. As early as January 16, the water was already getting higher but he didn’t alert anyone, and the next day he didn’t report to work for 2 weeks. The same 2 weeks that the Seine would rage. To this day it is unknown what happened to him.
On January 21, at exactly 10:53 pm the clocks throughout the city stopped. Paris had many functions that ran on compressed air including the movement of mail by the postal service, elevators, ventilation, and factories. All of it came to a screeching halt at 10:53 pm on the dot.
The water was rising to Zouave’s ankles and had now picked up speed. At over 15 mph, it was the fastest the Seine had been in centuries and nothing in its path was safe. From Troyes and farther the homes and furniture that once belonged to French families were now speeding into Paris. As had happened since the 9th-century bridges were struck and loud explosions could be heard.
The next day, January 22, the people of Paris woke up to water in their basements but they didn’t see much out their windows in the streets. More than 10 feet flooded into the city through the series of underground tunnels, sewers, and metro lines, and the saturated soil allowed the water to move from below the city instead of over. They didn’t see that coming and Zouave was now up to his knees in the Seine. To make matters worse it was the snow that was now falling from the sky but eventually turned to more rain, the last thing they needed.
The Bercy area was affected first and the streets were turned into wide waterways that saw the wine merchants trying to swim after their barrels of wine. The current was no match for them and the barrels floated down to the center of Paris. A few eager wine lovers risked life and limb on the bridges to catch a few but police quickly stopped them. The nearby power plant was short-circuiting and the metro lines were filling with water and coming to a halt.
Make sure to tune in next week for part two