1956 Le Mascaret (La Barre)

 We went every year between 1956 and 1959 to see le mascaret.  My parents would take my sister and me out of school for the day.   We used to go to Caudebec, a place where the river was deep, and we would watch as huge waves would go by, very fast (they say the waves move with "the speed of a galloping horse" which is about 35 mph), and the water just disappeared.  I remember seeing river rats running along the sides looking for the water.  It was just like multiple tsunamis, the waves would come, one after the other, and it was as though all the water was sucked out behind them. 


According to Google, "Until extensive engineering  works were completed in 1963, there was a huge one on the Seine estuary. La  Barre, as it was called, occasionally damaged moored ships as far upriver as  Rouen (which was farther upriver than Caudebec). At Caudebec-en-Caux it sometimes reached 4 metres high and was capable of  causing severe damage to any ship left moored alongside a quay. It attracted  crowds from miles around." 

Victor Hugo's oldest and  favorite daughter, Léopoldine, died at age 19 in 1843 (on September 4, my birthday), shortly after her  marriage. She drowned in the Seine at Villequier, pulled down by her heavy  skirts, when a boat overturned while they were trying to ride out le mascaret.  Her young husband also died trying to save  her.  People on shore stated that he could easily have swum to safety, but he would not leave her.  Two other people on the boat also drowned.