Monday, March 08, 2010

1910 Paris


We are currently "celebrating" the centennial of the famous 1910 flood (I already mentioned it a long time ago - in 2005!). It was not the worst one (look on the left in the photo, it says that the record was held in 1658 with 8,80 meters, against "only" 8,60 meters in 1910) but it was bad enough to cause a lot of damage. I went to one of the many exhibits that are currently being held about this flood in Paris at the moment - this one is free and held until April at Le Louvre des Antiquaires, near Le Louvre. It's both fascinating and frightening to see what water can do to all these areas that are familiar to you. Again, you don't have to be in Paris to see all this... There is an enormous amount of photo material available on the Internet. Check this for instance or even this little... video!

21 comments:

  1. Art reflects both life as it is and as it was. Pictures like this fascinate me. I like that the city never forgets its history.
    This reminds me of the tv show HIGHLANDER. Mythos (oldest immortal) kept stuff in Paris (at Shakespeare and Co!) and at one point his stuff got flooded and he says,"Apparently Paris is prone to flooding. Who knew." Like he wouldn't know- he's 5ooo years old. lol

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  2. Fasinating photos! Floods turn your familiar landscapes into another world. When I was young and living in Queensland we "lived through the '74 floods". We were lucky enough to live on a hill so our house didn't go under water like so many others. Instead our home became an island. Something I'll never forget.

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  3. I just finished "Paris Under Water" last week, a new book about the flood. Fascinating. It's a lot like the excellent book about the Galveston 1900 hurricane, "Isaac's Storm." I'm not sure what it says about my character that I so enjoy reading about disasters...anyway, good book for Paris fans, and there is a related web site www.parisunderwater.com

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  4. Eric,
    Nice sight - we will be in Paris while the exhibition is still on and so will take your advise on a visit. Thanks
    Debs - the floods have returned to Queensland after years of drought. Even Victoria and Melbourne suffered from flooding this weekend. I posted a pic on my blog of Flinders St Station as people were knee deep in water as hail rained upon them.
    Leon

    http://melbourneourhome.blogspot.com/

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  5. Fascinating, Eric! You've opened my eyes too. I expect the Arno to flood, and the Venice lagoon to rise—but the Seine, who knew? And I'm amazed that there's video of the 1910 flood. Once again, thanks for sharing!

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  6. I saw some of these photos before, they're amazing. So is the video especially if you think about it, the videos would be exactly 100 years old. Amazing.

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  7. For those of you who are visiting Paris, I don't know if it's still there but you could see on the walls of the Conciergerie how far the water came up.

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  8. the little video on you tube is absolutely amazing.....it makes me wonder just what video clips of "real life" will survive from 2010, to be shown 100 years from now

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  9. Interesting subject as I'm sure most people have forgotten about this possibility. Tell me Eric, why is it called "Journal des Débats" and not "Dégats". Am I missing something here?

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  10. @Michael. LOL! Excellent. Now you can play on words in French. Bravo.

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  11. >>but you could see on the walls of the Conciergerie how far the water came up.

    Tomate, I once took a class to the governor's house in Harrisburg, our state capital. After cleaning all else,the marks were left on the wall to show how far the water had risen.It made the children realize how serious the damage had been.

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  12. I remember when you posted that in 2005. Wow, was it really 2005? Where has time gone? It is great that you gave us all these links, and the video is the best! I am so happy people were into photography, even then.

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  13. Today is International Women's Day! I am going to a lunch/meeting "Women in Business Luncheon" sponsored by the San Francisco French-American Chamber of Commerce. Men are welcome. ;-)

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  14. LOL Eric...actually it was a serious question!

    Sounds great Lois! Women in Business AND French...You get around!

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  15. The video is wonderful to see. I just saw about twenty of the photos, I'll need to look further. Seeing the bridges is frightening. Thanks for these links, they are great!

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  16. Very interesting. It makes you wonder if it could happened again...or perhaps more to the point, when it might happen again... Are there things in place now to prevent this?

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  17. In the end of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", they speak about going to an island in the middle of the Seine, which is covered over with water at high tide. Either a good bit of the center was built up when the "modern" Paris was built, or the level of the river has changed over time....I had no idea it had flooded so bad and so often, but nature usually likes to return to it's original place, no matter how hard you try...


    Sean

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  18. The photo of quai St. Bernard reminded me of the inclined road going down to the river at Port du Louvre, the site of historic Dionysian events. Or perhaps Bacchanalian would be more appropriate in Lutece.

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  19. @Michael. Actually Le journal des Débats was a French newspaper where these photos were published. It has nothing to do with "dégâts" (damage), just a coincidence ;-)

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