A diversion from our renovation and restoration woes now-
I blogged this last winter about terrible flooding on the French Mediterranean coast and inland & about frantically trying to contact friends in the area to see if they were safe.
Well, they were but many others have really suffered. There were still many of the little roads down to the beach area at Argeles Plage closed down after more rain last week and the car park/ garden around the apartment building showed clear signs of recent flooding again. The mobile home parks and camp sites are devastated.
Inland has suffered too, the village is ok, and we have managed to get by with only a little water seepage under the workshop doors, but the river Aude is higher than I have ever seen it- we even have a new eyesore flood warning siren on the 11th century church tower!
Frankly if it is ever needed and saves lives, stuff the way it looks…
Many of the little businesses that should now be setting up for Easter trade are either still cleaning up or clearing out. Insurance won’t cover it and no-one will want to lease or buy a property with recent flood history.
The French are in the grip of real economic and political crisis right now. It’s not just the weak euro, businesses are being forced to drop their prices to survive .
I feel deeply for the small enterprises we know personally in the Aude and at those at Argeles that are now probably looking at their last season, if they can open at all. Think about this when you spend your holiday euros; I will be respectfully asking all my guests this season to spend at the little local independent shops, bars and restaurants. Many of these have been in the same families for sixty years and won’t be sustainable much longer.
see it for yourself below-
http://www.thelocal.fr/20141201/in-images-flooding-devestates-south-of-france
Blog-sur-Aude 
Sad! Has it recovered any at all?
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A bit, but the businesses have really been knocked and everyone is, of course, now very nervous! Our apartment is third floor, thankfully
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Oh what a shame. This situation sounds awful for all concerned. The rain we have had here in the south west has been, to my knowledge, nothing like this. Rin can really devastate lives it’s clear from your piece. Thanks for sharing.
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Yeah, I feel for those guys. They are the businesses that give an area its character. Unfortunately they have challenges coming at them from all sides. A natural disaster like this, on top of depopulation, crazy labor laws, etc., it could be the final straw for a lot of them.
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Hugely well said and chapeau to you for voicing this … the flooding is the icing on a very very sick cake for many French. All over France people are literally just shutting down (certainly true in our area) and it is a tragedy mostly un-noticed by the world at large. I have no answers but I do have the ability to spend what I have into the local economy … both the micro-economy here and the French economy in general. The French have had the grace to welcome me, the least I can do is try my hardest to help them survive 🙂
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I agree 100 %. we try to spend at independents as much as we can.
We pay our taxes on the holiday let and we will be fully legit when we move there permanantly
I like the French, I feel at home in France, I admire their pride and sense of history, community & family values and their refusal to suffer in silence.
They don’t moan, they just stand up to be counted, hand in hand.
I witnessed the French national and local response to the recent “incidents” in the true spirit of freedom, equality and brother/sisterhood and it would not happen here in UK, not any more anyway.
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