France in Focus

The River Vienne is a bit higher than normal at the moment. The Charente isn’t far behind.

Awful !

Lori wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 7:05 pmAwful !

The damage to the houses looks far worse. I’ve never seen it anything like as bad as this.

This morning in Saumur

https://www.ouest-france.fr/pays-de-la- ... 93e885a6e0

OTBC wrote: ↑Mon Apr 01, 2024 4:55 pm This morning in Saumur

We used to live near there and only once saw the Thouet flooding very close to Leclerc. But that looks much worse !
We know a house that's right down by the river on the north side, not far from Saint Lambert and I can only imagine it's got its feet well in the water. It's called "L'Arche" and before the upper Loire was dammed, it was regularly surrounded by water. Anyone living there got used to having to use a boat ...

OTBC wrote: ↑Mon Apr 01, 2024 4:55 pm This morning in Saumur

https://www.ouest-france.fr/pays-de-la- ... 93e885a6e0

I was looking at the flood forecast this morning and the only red alert in the area was the final part of of the Vienne just before the confluence with the Loire. It was interesting looking at the historical highs and a modelling feature where it showed what any level over normal would produce in flooding. In Confolens the Vienne had a surge 4 metres above the normal height which was not far from its historical record. Where I am the Charente surged to only just over 1 metre above normal which was way below the historical record. There is a lot of flooding here, my property is now literally a stone’s throw from the river, but it does not do much damage. The water floods over agricultural land in the valley and the houses all seem to be positioned above the danger areas. The Charente is controlled by weirs for much of its length. That probably allows the sections to have a built in safety valve when the water levels rise. They were put in place to ensure that the depth of water between Cognac and Fouras would always remain deep enough for the ships that carried Cognac for export.
Last year I read an article by a local historian that showed C19th plans to create a canal system that would have allowed barges to travel between the Loire and the Charente completing an inland route between NW and SW France. It was a bit like HS2 in that work never got beyond the initial stages. The railways arrived and the network of canals lost much of its importance. It interested me as the southern end of the the ‘new’ canal would have entered the Charente opposite my home.