Novembre 1963, l’Ardèche et le Gard
In 1963, two major weather events hit the Departments of the Ardèche, Gard and Hérault.
Firstly, on 3 August, a severe thunderstorm caused the Doux River to breach its banks at Lamastre (07), washing away the Retourtour bridge.
In November, heavy rains swamped the Gard and Hérault.
Sources: SPCGD*
Hervé Colignon Collection, Nîmes Municipal Archives.
Nîmes city centre is especially vulnerable to flooding due to the layout of its water system.
The city sits at the foot of a limestone plateau (the Plateau de Garrigues) where thalwegs*, which are mostly dry, descend the slopes, cross the city and join the Vistre, a small coastal river.
They are known locally as “Cadereaux” and were
Covered over in the 1950s for public hygiene reasons and to create new roads for the rising number of vehicles. They consequently disappeared from view but revived rather suddenly during the night of the 4 to 5 November, for the first time since 1915.
Hervé Colignon Collection, Nîmes Municipal Archives.
Underneath the road is the Cadereau d’Alès which was built over in the 1950s.
The image is almost certainly the newspaper photographer, Hervé Collignon,
who stopped briefly here in his Renault Dauphine.
Hervé Colignon Collection, Nîmes Municipal Archives.