France Floods: Paris roads, parks, Louvre flooded with peak still to come

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Roads, train stations and, even the famous Louvre Museum, have been under threat by rising flood waters in Paris. Heavy rains are expected to push the River Seine above six meters on Saturday. That's at least four meters higher than normal. And as CGTN's Elena Casas tells us, all boat traffic around Paris has been suspended, including the capital's famed sightseeing boats.

This statue on the Pont de l'Alma bridge is the traditional way Parisians measure the level of the Seine - on a normal day, its feet would be out of the water. Now, it's knee deep.

That's bad news for businesses along the river - with all boat traffic banned for a week, and cafes and restaurants on the towpath having to close.

ARNAUD SEITE FLOATING RESTAURANT OWNER "We've been shut for a week. In 2016 we had to close for ten days, now I'm really worried since it looks like we could be closed for as much as 20 days this time."

In June 2016, four people were killed and 1.4 billion euros worth of damage incurred when the river rose to 6.1 metres - it's now expected to hit that level again this weekend.

That would still be nowhere near the highest level on record - that was the flood of the century in 1910, when the river reached over eight metres.

For Parisians, it might feel like extreme weather events are becoming more common - but meteorologists warn against drawing a direct link with climate change.

PATRICK GALOIS METEOROLOGIST, METEO FRANCE "We can't say that this sort of event is necessarily going to happen more often in the future, it's just an aspect of the climate, sometimes we have very wet winters and sometimes colder, drier ones like last year. So it's the natural unpredictability of the climate that causes this to happen, just as it has in the past."

Scientists do say a big flood is inevitable here sooner or later - one on the scale of 1910 would mean evacuating half a million people, and cost at least 4 billion euros.

ELENA CASAS PARIS "Here in central Paris, the riverside towpath is flooded and both the roads and the railway lines that go along the river have had to be closed, making it hard for commuters to get in and out of town. While the water here is still rising, it has, at least, stopped raining for the moment. Elena Casas, CGTN, Paris."