Two people lost their lives and at least one more was missing Sunday after historic rain levels drenched the south of France, provoking major floods that are only now starting to recede, officials said.
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© Valery Hache/AFPAbandoned cars half submerged on the streets of Le Muy, near Cannes.
The high floodwaters buried cars underwater, turned roads into rivers and even allowed kayakers the chance to paddle down a highway.

One corpse was found in the village of Le Muy, just north of France's Mediterranean coast, close to where a rescue dinghy had capsized on Saturday evening with three members of the fire brigade and three civilians aboard, the local authorities in the southern Var region said. One of the civilians had been reported missing.

Members of the French civil defence take took part in rescue operations in flooded areas such as Le Muy, near Cannes in southeastern France.

The second body, of a man in his 50s, was found in the village of Cabasse in a car, said the local authorities, without giving further details. Meanwhile, another man, in his 70s, was still missing in the village of Saint-Antonin-du-Var after going out during the night amid heavy rain. Searches are continuing.

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© Valery Hache/AFPPeople in the village of Le Muy use a classic Bic plastic dinghy to negotiation the flooded streets.
The Alpes-Maritimes and Var regions have since Friday been hit by torrential rainstorms that also caused huge waves in seaside areas. A woman aged 39 was also badly injured on Saturday and hospitalised after being swept away by a wave, the fire service said.

The town of Roquebrune-sur-Argens in the Var region was particularly badly affected and only accessible by boat or helicopter, the local authorities said. Some 4,500 households have been left without electricity throughout the Var and Alpes-Maritimes regions.

Transport was badly hit, with services suspended between Nice and the port of Toulon outside Marseille, with Paris-Nice trains stopping in Marseille and not carrying on to Nice. Normal service was to gradually resume Sunday afternoon.

'Far from normal'

The senior official for the Var region, Jean-Luc Videlaine, told AFP that the rains had been of "historic" intensity, adding that the damage will be "considerable". He said that water levels were now going down but added that the situation was "far from returning to normal".

In some areas of the Var region, the equivalent of two or three months of rain fell in just 24 or 48 hours.
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© Valery Hache/AFPA car half-submerged on a street in Le Muy.
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© Valery Hache/AFPMembers of the French civil defence wading out into the water in the village of Le Muy, near Cannes.
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© Valery Hache/AFPCars flooded in the village of Roquebrune-sur-Argens, near Cannes.
floods france
© Valery Hache/AFPA statue of the Buddha rising out of the waters in the village of Roquebrune-sur-Argens, near Cannes