This Parisian donned waders in order to hand deliver baguettes to his mother's flooded house in Châlette-sur-Loing Montargis, near Orléans, on Wednesday. (Christian Hartmann/Reuters)  Torrential rain forced thousands of people from their homes south of the French capital as the Seine River surged to its highest point in decades.  Some residents, including these young men on homemade rafts in Villeneuve Saint-Georges, chose to get out on their own.  Others, like this boatload in Nemours, south of Paris, were rescued by firemen. Over a quarter of Nemours 13,000 inhabitants were told to leave as floodwaters crept up to the second storey of buildings in the town center.  The Zouave statue at the Pont de l'Alma has for hundreds of years been used as an informal indicator of the Seine's flood level. When its feet are under water, it usually signals emergency flood precautions. This is what it looked like Friday.  A replica of the iconic New York City monument on Île aux Cygnes, a small island in Paris's 16th district, is surrounded by water.  Both museums overlooking the Seine were closed to the public on Friday.  In the Louvre, crates of Etruscan and Roman antiquities were stacked in corridors overlooked by classical marble statues. The fragile artworks and artifacts were moved up from the basement to avoid possible flood damage.  *While no flooding in the Louvre has been reported, precautionary measures are taken whenever the Seine reaches above five-and-a-half metres.  The national weather service said the greater Paris region had in May endured its wettest month in nearly 60 years.  In the Loiret region, where local officials called on the army to help evacuate motorists trapped on the A10 motorway, the floods were the most severe in a century.  The Seine could peak at six metres in Paris on Friday, officials said, stressing that this was still well below the level where it would pose danger to residents. The river reached a record high of 8.6 metres in 1910, when thousands of Parisians had to flee flooded low-lying areas of the city.
Torrential rain has forced thousands from their homes while the Seine River surges to its highest level in more than 30 years, shutting down the famed Louvre and Orsay museums.