Paris floods: Seine up to highest level in 35 years, landmarks shut

Paris floods: Seine up to highest level in 35 years, landmarks shut Updated: June 4, 2016 11:36 IST | AP A view of the flooded banks of the river Seine in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris on Friday. Both the Louvre and Orsay museums were closed as the Seine, which officials said was at its highest level in nearly 35 years, was expected to peak sometime later on Friday. | AP French Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay (left) speaks to the media as Louvre Museum head Jean-Luc Martinez (top left) listens as the museum is closed to the public due to the rising Seine River in Paris, France, following days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country, on Friday. | Reuters Visitors read an information sheet about the closing of the Musee de Louvre and tourists being turned away, due to the unusually high water level of the river Seine in Paris on Friday. French officials say that the Seine River is still rising in Paris as France's unseasonable spate of rainfall begins to taper off. | AP The swollen Seine River kept rising on Friday, spilling into Paris streets and forcing one landmark after another to shut down as it surged to its highest levels in nearly 35 years. Across the city, museums, parks and cemeteries shut down as the city braced for evacuations. The Seine was expected to peak in Paris early on Saturday at about 5 meters (16 feet, 3 inches) above normal. Authorities shut the Louvre museum, the national library, the Orsay museum and the Grand Palais, Paris’ striking glass-and-steel topped exhibition centre. “We evaluate the situation for all the (cultural) buildings nearly hour-by-hour,” said Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay, speaking to journalists outside the world-famous Louvre. “We don’t know yet the evolution of the level of the Seine River in Paris,” she said. At the Louvre, home to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” curators were scrambling to move some 2,50,000 artworks from basement storage areas at risk of flooding to safer areas upstairs. The Louvre will stay closed through Tuesday and the Orsay Museum, known for its impressionist art, closed through the weekend.