At Taponas, in the Rhône region, between the hills of Beaujolais and the hundreds of ponds scattered among the swampy Dombes area, the Saône River overflowed copiously from 20 to 23 March 2001. The river temporarily took its ease in its wider bed, a natural and recurring phenomenon in this low-lying zone, downhill from the confluence of the Saône and the Doubs rivers. Several areas in the eastern and central France were submerged in the spring of 2001.The series of floods were caused by flood-like rains (three times as heavy as the normal seasonal rains at Besançon, on the Doubs) that fell on a ground already gorged with water and on underground water tables saturated by recent rains. However, capricious climate was not alone responsible. Human responsibility also played its part, thanks to construction in flood-prone areas, obstacles to water drainage (transport infrastructure and urban impermeability), poor maintenance of rivers, and deforestation.

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