The water level of the Seine river in Paris is starting to decrease after reaching its peak overnight, the highest in nearly 35 years, French authorities say.
But they warned it could take up to ten days for the river to return to its normal levels after the flooding that swelled the river to about 4.5 metres above average in Paris.
Floods due to heavy rains have inundated parts of France, Germany and Belgium this week.
More than 17,000 homes were still without electricity on Saturday in the Paris region and centre of France.
Authorities have also shut the Louvre museum, the national library, the Orsay museum and the Grand Palais, Paris's striking glass-and-steel topped exhibition centre.
In addition to the Louvre, the Orsay museum, home to a renowned collection of impressionist art on the left bank of the Seine, was also closed on Friday to prepare for possible flooding. The Grand Palais, which draws 2.5 million visitors a year, was also shut down.
The closures are highly unusual. The Louvre said the museum had not taken such precautions in its modern history - since its 1993 renovation at the very least. Disappointed tourists were being turned away.
France’s interior ministry also reported the death of a 74-year-old man who fell from his horse and drowned in a river in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris.
Germany and Romania
Elsewhere in Europe, authorities are counting the cost of the floods as they waded through muddy streets and waterlogged homes. German authorities said the body of a 65-year-old man was found overnight in the town of Simbach am Inn, bringing the country's death toll over recent days to 10.
In eastern Romania, two people died and 200 people were evacuated from their homes as floods swept the area, including one man who was ripped from his bicycle by a torrent of water in the eastern village of Ruginesti. In Belgium, rescue workers found the body of a bee keeper who was swept away by rising waters while trying to protect his hives in the village of Harsin.
The German Insurance Association estimates this week's flooding has caused some €450 million in damage in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg alone.
The foul weather has added to the major travel disruptions France is already experiencing, after weeks of strikes and other industrial actions by workers upset over the government's proposed labour reforms. French rail company SNCF said the strikes had led to the cancellation of some 40 per cent of the country's high-speed trains.