Floods and the Seil

Until the middle of the 20th century the Loire flooded the village, sometimes for months. The streets became canals: post, weddings and funerals went by boat, and children would rather row than go to school.

What you can still see: stone outside stairs that go straight to the first floor, because the ground floor was not lived in; hooks under the roof to haul furniture up with a pulley; the marks of the four great floods (1872, 1904, 1910, 1955) on quai Marcel Boissard; old postcards.

The Seil, a branch of the Loire, separated Trentemoult, Norkiouse, Haute-Île and Basse-Île from the town; people crossed it by boat until the bridges of 1857-1858. Cut by the railway in 1875, it was filled in at the start of the 1960s. A thread of water and a quiet path remain under the road to Pornic. Another stream, the Courtil-Brisset, filled in in 1848, still shapes rues Jouneau, Soulas and Bruneau.

Sources: Rezé Histoire no. 97 (April 2026), “3 walks to understand Trentemoult”, Rezé Histoire association – rezehistoire.fr. Texts rewritten by trentemoult.com; for more, get the magazine.