BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)

Subject: Seine river floods in Paris
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 12:09 PM

Maybe Paris ought to install gondolas on the Seine.

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: DaveRo
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 12:37 PM

I was there during the 2001 flood when there was quite a lot of damage and disruption. But they seem to be well prepared now - they closed the RER railway along the left bank days ago and started moving stuff in the Louvre.

The Parisians measure their floods by how far the water comes up a statue of a Zouave on a pier of the Pont d'Alma. There's a diagram about half way down this_page

I think they don't now expect tonight's peak to be higher than last year.

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 12:39 PM

I saw a news item online that said 'huge rats invade Paris'. I clicked on the accompanying video and the poor little rats were only normal size. They've been flushed out of the sewers and are starving, forced to try and raid litter bins. People always say 'huge rats' but it's usually an exaggeration.
However, whenever I see a spider in the house, I run screaming that's it was 'gigantic'. My husband comes to my rescue and ejects the tiny little chap in his bare hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 12:45 PM

More likely to be a chapess. I tell Mrs Steve that I'm throwing them outside but I never do. I generally let them go behind the settee instead. I like sharing my house with 'em. Shhh!

If you flush a spider down the plug hole you are killing it. Spiders put outdoors are very unlikely to survive for long.

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 12:57 PM

Thanks, DaveRo, for that link and all the telling eye-witness accounts.

translated from the French:
"Even the swans and the ducks have deserted the Marne at this moment."

As to the statue of the Zouave,
I see that the highwater-mark from 1910 is up to the statue's CHEST,
for goodness sake.
Right now the watermark is at the Zouave's thighs.

Back to the notion of Parisian Gondolas on the Seine. Not so farfetched.

The French can be notoriously racist towards the migrations of persons who come to France for jobs.
Roughly one hundred years ago, it was a worker migration of Italians.
"Le Ritals," was one of the printable nicknames the French gave them.
Now THEY could have steered gondolas up and down the Seine.

With the turn into the present century, though,
it would be "Les Arabes" or "Les Beurs."
Imagine that: the swollen Seine with a gondola steered
by a Algerian gondolier, singing Rai . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 01:07 PM

Hahaha Steve! I'm not a bit interested in sex (of a spider that is) It can be a veritable Lothario or a Porn Queen, I just want it deposited as far from me as possible.
I'd be seasick on a gondola merely while stepping aboard..

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Jos
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 02:45 PM

I am happy to share my house with most spiders, hoping that they will feast on clothes moths, but if I find those 'false widows' I release them some way away in the hope that they don't have a strong homing instinct.

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 02:51 PM

A false widow appeared in our sitting room while my husband was at work. I had to run to the neighbours and their lovely grown-up son came to my rescue. They have a very nasty bite so he killed it. (Sorry spider lovers!)

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 05:55 PM

Yet another obstacle facing Les Barker's snails.....

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: robomatic
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 08:20 PM

As they say, "The Seine Also Rises"

You don't need me to tell me to get my coat!

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Jan 18 - 04:13 AM

The French can be notoriously racist

Guilty but in Seine?

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Jan 18 - 01:55 PM

snails?

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 10:05 AM

How would you like to be
Down by the Seine with me,
Stacking the furniture, mopping the floors,
Trying to keep all the water outdoors.

Darling I'd hold your hand,
Filling those bags of sand.
We'll watch the Seine as its waters all grow,
Then see it overfl'eau.

(Apologies to Dean Martin and "Bridges of Paris")

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Senoufou
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 12:32 PM

In the 1966 album 'Chevalier Chante Paris' Maurice Chevalier sings 'Sous les ponts de Paris' and it's the very best version of the song in my humble opinion.

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: DaveRo
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 12:58 PM

The zouave is getting pissed off too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6IbykzfTfw

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: Senoufou
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 01:05 PM

Hahahaha! That was really good DaveRo!

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: DaveRo
Date: 04 Feb 18 - 02:39 PM

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/paris-ile-de-france/paris/gilet-sauvetage-zouave-seine-1415241.html

Subject: RE: BS: Paris resembles Venice (flooded Seine)
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Feb 18 - 08:28 PM

If all that weren't enough,
there is stormy weather coming.

Pity the Parisian barge operator