Behind the Scenes

On February 11th, 2026, Storm Nils slammed into the Dordogne with 150+ km/h winds. Here at “La Maison Louverie”, high on our forest hill, we felt every gust. Our 11th-century stone gîte demonstrated its resilience, showing what centuries of Périgord weather taught us. Across southern and south‑western France, up to 900,000 homes lost electricity during the peak of Storm Nils. Approximately 450,000 households were still without power the following day. Enedis crews worked to reconnect the grid. In our corner of the Dordogne, we were without power from about 23:00 until 15:00 the next day. This outage lasted roughly 16 hours. We were considered “lucky” compared to some nearby villages that only got their electricity back on Sunday (15th) afternoon.

Record soil saturation

Storm Nils also left a legacy of exceptional flooding across south‑west France. France’s flood agency Vigicrues reported record soil saturation. They also noted unprecedented numbers of rivers on orange and red alert at the same time. The Dordogne around Bergerac and the villages of Limeuil and La Roque‑Gageac swelled and ran fast. Our hilltop position above the valley meant La Maison Louverie stayed safely above any flood risk. Many low‑lying areas along the Garonne and Charente were placed under red alerts. Thousands of homes were affected by high water.

and then.. Storm Pedro a few days later

And just as the waters from Nils were slowly receding, Storm Pedro brought more heavy rain. Gusts reached up to 100–140 km/h in the south‑west. Several departments remained on red flood alert. Around 5,000 homes in the Lot‑et‑Garonne (our neighboring region) were left without power, and over 9,000 homes in Dordogne were effected. For us at La Maison Louverie, the storm confirmed the value of our location. Our robust old stone buildings proved essential when the weather turns wild. Only the Route du Plateau was closed off for a couple of hours because of a fallen tree.

Nature’s Heavy Toll – What We Saw

Tuesday, February 11th evening: A majestic pine with an 80 cm+ base crashed down around 11 pm. We had watched and loved it for years. It took electricity lines and internet cables with it.

Wednesday, February 12th morning: An oak in the field had fallen overnight. And another 20-year-old tree behind the barn was uprooted too. Valley winds funneled upward, smashing the old cow barn wall and ripping off an entire row of tiles. By late morning, our sun drenched poolside awning—where guests sip rosé all summer—lay crushed.

Across southern France, 900,000 homes lost power at Nils’ peak, 450,000 still dark the next day. We were out from 11pm February 11th until 3pm the 12th (16 hours)—nearby villages waited until Sunday the 15th…

Our Personal Recovery Timeline

February 11th, 11pm – February 12th, 3pm: No power. A fireplace was roaring and candles were lit.
February 12th: Winds still 100km/h+—too dangerous for chainsaws or ladders.
February 13th, 4pm: Internet/WiFi back online. Still rain
February 15th: We rolled up our sleeves do the tree work ourselves. Cutting, re-locating, cleaning the road. Assessing the barn roof and decided that this we can also do ourselves.

February 19th: Aftermath Pedro, Awning at the terrace gave up but… We stayed lit and dry.

The Silver Lining We Shared

Zero damage to main the main house, and the tobacco barn has NO damage. No tile was hit by the enormous pine that went down (cm work)

February 17th: Blue skies, our tree cleanup almost finished

Book Spring Confidently: Louverie weathers storms better than most. April/May weeks open → check our calendar

Next week: Behind-the-scenes reveal of something completely new and exciting at Louverie – you won’t want to miss this!

#StormNils #StormPedro #DordogneGite #BehindTheScenes