Rivers keep swelling in France, disrupting services

PARIS – Rivers across France are still swelling despite some improvement in the weather, disrupting train services and metro lines in Paris.

Meteo France, the national weather agency, placed 23 departments on orange alert, the second highest level of vigilance.

West of Paris, the Seine River burst its banks in some spots and spread to almost twice its usual breadth between the towns of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Le Pecq. The area is well downstream from Paris.

Forecasters said Wednesday that the Seine levels should keep rising until the weekend. The river is expected to reach a peak last reached in June 2016, when authorities were forced to close several Parisian monuments including the Louvre museum.