Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Oct 14, Part 4 - Paris flood marker: Quai de Montebello

The marker that says 1910 indicates the height of the water during the great Paris flood that occurred that year. You may want to click on the photo to enlarge it. I took this picture as we crossed the Pont au Double, the bridge crossing from the Ile de la Cite to the Left Bank just in front of Notre Dame. The landing point, where the marker is, is the Quai Montebello. It's too bad there isn't a person in the photo for scale, but the 1910 marking is quite high above the paving stones, and they in fact are another level above current height of the river. I knew about the flood, because I'd seen one of the markings inside the Conciergerie on an earlier trip. When I noticed this indicator, I grabbed my camera and took a quick shot of it. As I look back over my pictures from this trip, I believe I had unconsciously begun documenting more than anything else. Maybe because we were on the move so much, or maybe because of something in my mindset at the time, I seem to have taken a lot of pictures that were intended to note or remember some detail that interested me rather than framing beautiful pictures. Here are a couple of links about the flood:

Historic Cities
Paris Daily Photo

Go to Part 5

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