Cadillac-sur-Garonne, western France, flooded by the Garonne River, February 16, 2026. THOMAS BERNARDI/AFP
"A flooded France." Traveling by train from Paris to Bayonne, in southwestern France, on Friday, February 13, Christophe Cassou, a climatologist at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, was struck by the scale of the flooding: Houses, streets and fields were underwater. Four days later, the situation remained critical. According to the latest information bulletin from Vigicrues, the national flood-monitoring and warning service, 70 departments were still on flood alert on Monday. Three were placed on the highest red alert level and 15 at the orange level.
Maine-et-Loire, in the west, joined Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne, in the southwest, at the maximum alert level. Angers, a city in the Loire Valley, was expected to experience "major flooding" from the Maine River on Tuesday and Wednesday, Vigicrues warned. Farther south, the Garonne River, which had overflowed between the cities of Agen and Bordeaux, was set to rise again on Tuesday after a "temporary" lull. The floodwaters forced the evacuation of nearly 2,000 residents, caused thousands of power outages and disrupted transportation.
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