Thu 28 Jan 2010
One hundred years ago in January, 1910, Paris was flooded. I made it to an exhibition in the Marais to look at some photos from that time.
As you can see, the water was almost to the top of this bridge.
This is a statue at the base of the Alma bridge. People often keep an eye on it during flood season. Here it is during normal times. If the water level reaches the statues feet, the paths along side the river are closed.
And here it is in 1910. All of the streets near the river were filled with water and people used boats to get around
That must be hard to imagine as you walk through Paris on a daily basis. Can you imagine a time when the water was that high? As someone who’s basement just got wet because an outside faucet was turned on, I can’t imagine dealing with the clean up after a flood like that.
Sometimes it’s better to live high up in the apartment lofts than those houses on the ground, especially in those bad times like floods.
I’ve never thought there was this disastrous day for Paris. I think the (rain)water management system has improved lots since then that this wont happen again in the future.
Thanks for sharing.
I love historical photos. The town I live in is next to a river which used to flood a lot (now, it never rains) and there are great photos in the library of the flooded streets. It’s a bit more exciting when the streets of Paris are flooded
Is this what sparked the modernization of Paris’ famous sewer system?
I never knew Paris had such a bad flood. that exhibition of photos must be fascinating as most of the buildings would still be here today!
Love seeing history depicted in b/w photos. That was a huge flood. Tonight we are having snow – looks pretty and everyone is glad it’s Saturday tomorrow and they can stay home!
I had heard of it but I had never seen the picture. Must have been pretty weird!
And it wasn’t just the streets near the river, some of the photos I’ve seen show flooding all the way to the lower 9th! Incroyable! Did not know about that statue at Alma, that’s interesting.
FYI you can see an online exhibition of 1910 flood photos here: http://inondation1910.paris.fr/
Don’t know if these are exactly the same photos Linda saw in person, but this online exhibit did have some I had not seen before. If you know Paris at all, then it will interest you especially, to see the Paris of 100 years ago… under water!
Wow! That was totally interesting! I think this year with all the snow and rain everywhere there will be quite a bit of flooding come spring. Of course with spring around here comes tornadoes, and a city not too far from here had one back in the 1930′s. You never know what nature will bring!
Ulrike