Sunday, June 20, 2010

French (e)vac(u)ation 2010 - Var Floods

This post is about something that always happens to someone else. Something you watch on the news, but hope you'll never experience. It happened to us. We were lucky, we survived and we somehow managed to come out of it with most of our belongings, better French language skills, and some new friends.
We booked our holiday with Eurocamp in late summer 2009, at the same camping site that we visited that year. Two weeks of relaxation away from work and England to look forward to. We got up early on Wednesday 9th June 2010 and caught the 0830 ferry from Dover to Calais, then had a leisurely drive to our stopover camp-site at Chateau de l'Eperviere in Gigny Sur Saone. There was some rain during the drive, and several thunderstorms during the night and following day, but nothing to worry about. We spent the following day exploring the area, had dinner in the Chateau restaurant, then got up early on Friday to continue our journey South.

We reached our main destination - Camping Les Pêcheurs near the small village of Roquebrune-sur-Argens late on Friday. The weather was overcast, but it was warm and dry. However the tent we'd been allocated was on a busy junction of the campsite, right by a wash block, so we asked to be moved. After spending the night in that tent we were moved to a very quiet pitch at the back of the site next to the high levy running alongside the river. Saturday and Sunday was hot and sunny. We spent some time by the pool and walked into Roqubrune-sur-Argens.

Monday started out nice. We drove towards Fréjus in the morning, and did some shopping at Decathlon and Carrefour. In the afternoon Clare sat by the pool and I hired a canoe and paddled along the L'Argens river, taking some pictures of the slow moving river and beautiful countryside. Late that afternoon some light cloud drifted in and there was a small amount of rain.
The weather forecast for Tuesday was not good. Thunderstorms and rain were predicted, so we drove into Nice to look around, then on to Monaco in the late afternoon. As we drove through Monte Carlo there was a very heavy downpour, and heading up to the péage motorway was like driving through a shallow river. We got back to the campsite at about 7pm to find puddles of water around our tent pitch some of which had leaked into the tent, leaving a centimetre of water on the groundsheet. The Eurocamp courier came round with a spade, so while Clare mopped out the tent, our English neighbour and I dug small trenches around the tents and to the drains to take away the puddles. This wasn't completely unexpected as the year before we'd arrived at the start of the holiday to find some trenches at the side of our tent where there'd been heavy rain the week before.

The electricity for the site went out at about 7.30pm, but we had our torches, candles, etc, and the wood fired oven at the camp restaurant was still working, so we purchased a pizza and settled in with our books for a damp night. The rain was still heavy and our trenches weren't taking all the rain away, so we were still mopping up every 20 minutes or so.

Just before 9pm it was still raining hard. We'd already put a few bags in the car to keep them out of the water, then out of the darkness came a woman who worked on the campsite reception. She came to the tent and told us to get our passports and evacuate the site, to go to Roquebrune Village as the lake on the other side of the road to the campsite entrance was looking like it was very full and may burst it's banks.

We slung as many bags as we could quickly get our hands on into the car, but in the back of our minds both of us expected to be back at the tent the next day to find 10cm of water if that, so we left all the food, kitchenware, blankets, and anything difficult to pack (including our tow bar bike rack which we left on the floor of the tent, and our bikes which were locked to a tree). Our neighbours were also packing as much as they could into their car, but at this point there were lots of cars moving around, so Clare stood in the rain and guided me out of the parking space. I didn't know at the time, but Clare was up to her calves in water, so we were lucky to get the car moving.

We drove through the pouring rain to the rear emergency exit, then out onto the main road. At the entrance to the site was a cluster of police cars and there was a long line of cars parked by the side of the road, so as we didn't have any further instructions we parked up with them. About 30 minutes later a police car drove past with a loud speaker telling the cars to follow him. We pulled out with the other cars, and drove in a long line through the village of Roquebrune-sur-Argens and out the other side. The rain was so hard that the car in front was barely visible and several times we drove through fairly deep water. At some point the group of cars must have split, or lost the police car as people started stopping and turning around up ahead. At this point we decided to just get to high ground and sit it out for the night, so we turned the car around and headed back to Roquebrune-sur-Argens where we parked up in a car park half way up the hill and tried to get some sleep despite the still pouring rain. There was a steady stream of blue and orange flashing lights and people with torches travelling along the road all night as well as helicopters.

After a sleepless night, I ventured out at about 5.30am. The rain had eased off so I walked down the hill into town and was shocked to find that the road we had travelled on the night before was deep underwater.
From Roquebrune-Sur-Argens (after floods)
We met 4 English people, all of us from Le Pecheurs Campsite, and found out that the entire village was cut off as the road was at least a meter under water at both ends of town.

A few hours later, in the car park, we'd got talking to Bos and Iris, a couple from Amsterdam, when a French lady and her mother very kindly asked us if we'd like to come up to their house to clean up and have some coffee. We were tired, damp and muddy, so we couldn't refuse! Valerie, the French lady was incredibly generous, giving us coffee and cake, and letting us use her shower and beds to have a rest. We also met Sue and Phil, a Welsh couple from the campsite who were also invited back to Valeries house.

The water was still deep on the roads out of town, so we stayed the day at Valerie's house, occasionally walking down to stare in amazement at the flood waters and watch the four or five helicopters searching the valley for survivors, spraying the waters with disinfectant and occasionally air lifting someone to safety.
The water was still high at the end of the day - a muddy torrent of water sweeping through the low ground at the bottom of the village - so were were not going anywhere. Valerie insisted that we sleep at her house, moving her daughter to her mother's house, and herself into the box room so we could use the beds. Valerie, her friends and her family were amazing - cooking wonderful French food and not letting us lift a finger to help, insisting that we were still on vacation! Most of them spoke little English, and we did not speak a lot of French, but luckily Iris did, so she became the translator in the house!

We still couldn't get out of the village the next day. The water had gone down somewhat, but the torrent had made the roads unsafe, sweeping most of the road away 200m from our campsite entrance. The electricity returned for a few hours, but then went off again, and we were told not to drink the tap water as it was contaminated by the flood water. Mobile phone reception was patchy at best, but we got in contact with our family and Eurocamp and let them know we were safe. Towards the end of the day we were told that we might be able to get out of the village, but it was unclear how far we'd be able to get, so we stayed another night at Valerie's house in the village. Information changed hour by hour.

The next morning the sun had come out and flood waters had gone down enough to allow us to walk to the campsite where thanks to Michel (a member of campsite staff), and possibly the good luck to get there at the same time as a press photographer, we were allowed onto the campsite far enough to check Sue and Phil's Eurocamp trailer. They had left with only the few things they hadn't unpacked in the car, the clothes on their backs, and their passports, so wanted to see if anything was salvageable.
We found their trailer, but it had been moved several meters and obviously had spent some time almost completely underwater. Luckily it was not one of the many caravans or trailers that were on their sides, roofs, or completely missing, but it was a mess inside, full of silt. Amazingly Sue managed to find the drawer containing her jewellery still intact, but there was nothing else worth taking. We were told that we could not get to our tent that day as the flood water was still chest deep through much of the park.

We did not want to go take advantage of Valerie's hospitality any longer, and we didn't really feel in the right frame of mind to stay on another campsite, so we booked into a hotel on top of a hill about 25 miles away for a couple of nights and spent Friday afternoon by the pool experiencing the weather you'd expect for the French Riviera. We did the same on Saturday, then on Sunday morning we decided we'd head back to the campsite to try to get to our pitch and see if there was anything left.

By now the flood waters had gone down completely, leaving behind 10-20cm of silty mud covering everything, but we were able to get onto the site and get to our pitch. The far end of the site was devastated, with piles of caravans blocking the paths, and bits of cutlery, chairs and tent cloth hanging from the trees. We were still hoping that the flood hadn't reached our tent, or had left it intact, but we were disappointed to find an empty pitch where our tent used to be.
From Roquebrune-Sur-Argens (after floods)
The caravan belonging to a Dutch couple on the pitch next to ours had moved 5m and was now leaning precariously on it's side against some bushes, and all that we could see of our tent was a scrap of groundsheet covered by mud and some bent tent poles and cloth. Surprisingly our bikes were still locked to the tree, but were now on their sides, half buried in mud. I dug them out, and managed to unlock them, but even this was hard as the lock was jammed with silt. The bikes themselves were a mess, covered in sand and mud and tangled with plants and weeds. The peddles were jammed with silt and the wheels made grinding noises when they turned.

Amazingly, when we pulled up the corner of the ground sheet, our tow bar bike rack was still there, although covered in mud, so we decided to take the bikes back in case they could be repaired, or at the very least for proof for the insurance company. We couldn't find anything of ours else worth salvaging other than a couple of mugs and pots which Clare dug out using a plate!
We carried the bikes and the rack back to the car, and amazingly after being underwater for 4 days, the light board on the bike rack worked! So we loaded up the bikes, and headed back to the hotel, where I'm writing this from now.

The original plan was to stay at Camping Les Pêcheurs until Wednesday, head back up stopping at the same halfway site as before, then catch the ferry home on Thursday, but we think we'll cut the holiday short and check out of the hotel tomorrow to head home. This will give us a couple of extra days to relax and deal with insurance companies before getting back to work.

Although this has been a terrible experience, we've met and dealt with some amazing people. I'm sure we'll stay in contact with Phil and Sue and Bas and Iris. Our French host Valerie was amazing, and hopefully we'll be able to meet up with her again and thank her in person if we head down this way again. Despite losing everything, the staff at the campsite were very helpful, and their timely evacuation may have saved our lives. Eurocamp have also been great, offering help and support if and when we need it. Despite all that happened, we're planning to book another Eurocamp holiday next year, and possibly return to the same area. Same campsite if they are able to re-open it.

If you want to see more pictures and some videos, check out the before and after albums on Picasa.