It has been raining and even snowing a lot in Île-de-France, the Paris region. As a result, the Seine is much higher than usual and you can see big waves in the river. The authorities have had to close all the express roads along the riverbank-- no doubt this suits the Paris mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, who wants to return the riverbank to pedestrians. He has already shut several sections of the voies sur berges, which were built under French prime minister and president Pompidou. Pompidou was nicknamed "autoroutes tous azimuts" [superhighways in all directions] because he was a relentless "modernizer" of Paris. He destroyed the old Halles with its lovely ironwork pavilions, to the horror of preservationists around the world; he built the expressways along the river and the Périphérique or ring-road around Paris, and encouraged all sorts of towers and concrete monstrosities including La Défense and the Tour Montparnasse. The odd thing is that he saw himself as a supporter of art. No doubt in the Le Corbusier mode.
How did I get on that subject? Right, the flooding. So, the standard I'm-a-Parisian measure of flooding in Paris is the feet of the zouave, a statue of a French soldier under the bridge at Alma. Above, you see the zouave in normal times. He's quite large, 17 feet high (5.2 meters). During the great Paris flood of 1910, the water came up to his shoulders!
The statue was moved upward in 1974. So now, when the feet of the zouave are underwater, it's much more serious than it used to be. Look how high it is today!
My grandparents lived around what is now La Defense and their house was “exproprié” to make room for it. They had it built originally and I used to go there many week-ends. My grandfather had a postcard collection. I kept many of his postcards – some were of the 1910 flood of Paris. I showed some of them on my post on my mother who was born in 1910. If you’d like to look at the flood postcards, they are on my post here (of May 29,2010) : http://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2010/05/recollection-mothers-youth-and-house-of.html my grandparents’ house is on this post also. I hope the floods won’t be as bad this year.
Posted by: vagabonde | 11 February 2013 at 18:48
That is so interesting! Your mother looks very fashionable-- I guess she would be, being a petite main at the famous House of Worth!
I loved reading about your family!
Also, I love hydrangeas (only blue ones though)-- I have some dried ones sitting near me right this minute. They're so pretty and remind me of my Louisiana grandmother.
Posted by: Sedulia | 11 February 2013 at 20:42