This Canche that flows into the Canal is charming. So quiet that in La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil, a village in Pas-de-Calais, the dam bordering the river had melted over time into the valley. “Never a flood in three hundred years,” assured Alexandre Gauthier, chef of La Grenouillère, two Michelin stars. A year ago, on November 10, 2023, he experienced the unimaginable in his restaurant planted in the middle of the marsh, a few meters from the river bank.
For days, the rain had been hitting the windows of the building designed by architect Patrick Bouchain, who was working with his team, with the smell of hot bread. One of his cooks is busy chopping a winter radish, the other peeling pearl onions, small spares destined for the chef’s inventions, displayed like works of art on the plates. In the afternoon, a strange silence suddenly chilled the kitchens. The imperceptible sound of water rising in a house. La Canche had gotten out of bed.
A year later, La Grenouillère is still closed. Insurance, work, authorizations, everything takes infinite time. And the rain fell hard again, in this new autumn. Alexandre Gauthier listens to the frogs that have been missing for years and monitors the dam raised 20 centimeters by the department’s technical services. “That won’t be enough. The marshes are full and will not be able to absorb another flood. »
Battlefield
Images of Valencia, Spain, submerged on October 29, awakened trauma and revived memories. Those of that day in November 2023, when, after the stupor, the hats flew to the kitchens: the chef then became a general on a battlefield and the brigade, a regiment of soldiers. Save everything you can, dishes, pots, furniture, wine and flour reserves. Run to find sand and bags, fill them, tie them up, put up barricades. But the water seeped through the floors and pipes, blackened by mud, until it licked the long guest table. Wellies were needed to get through the patio, the room was like a lake. “It’s almost beautiful” Alexandre Gauthier was elated on Instagram announcing an imminent reopening: “Our house filled with water, but we didn’t!” »
That’s without the flooded garden, the devastated guest rooms, the burst pipes, the looted bathrooms, the pianos and the cold storage rooms out of order. And the rust, which attacked the metal structure from day one. The leader smiled bravely, alone in the storm. “The firefighters were overwhelmed, the politicians were overwhelmed, the construction companies were absent” he says.
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