A panorama of the Great Paris Flood

This panoramic* image was taken about noon on January 28, 1910, moments before the crest of the flood.

Debris piles up against the Pont des Arts as bystanders watch from the Pont-Neuf.  Between them is an enormous bathing barge, the Bains de la Samaritaine, a boat with an open swimming area in the center. Behind the Bains de la Samaritaine is the Samaritaine department store, still under construction.

Traffic is closed on the Pont des Arts, on the left. But the Pont-Neuf, with its high arches, is in no danger.

The apparatus hanging from the Pont des Arts is an attempt to break up the debris, which included trees, branches, and detritus from upriver, wood that had been piled on the quais, and garbage.

*This image comes from two sources and isn't  geographically accurate--there's a chunk missing on the left of the Samaritaine bath-boat, and because the two pictures were taken from different angles, the bridges are farther apart than this looks.   But it's not bad.   At the right you'll see the crowd of women on the Pont-Neuf, watching the crest of the flood.  Milly must be one of them, but I don't see George.

DVD Extras

• Where stories come from: the Great Paris Flood
• Studies for the cover (thanks, Michael Deas!)
  
• A gorgeous PhotoShop collage of The Knowledge of Water, by the photographer-artist Andree Lerat
• First in the series: The Vanished Child--"Someone killed Richard.  Now Richard wants to know why,"
• Third in the series: A Citizen of the Country--madness and witchcraft on the Western Front
• Glad to talk anytime!