In 846 they got as far as Limoges.

The inhabitants, finding themselves unable to make head against the dauntless pirates, abandoned their hearths, together with all they had not time to carry away.
Encouraged by these successes, the Northmen reappeared next year upon the coasts and in the rivers of Aquitaine, and they attempted to take Bordeaux, whence they were valorously repulsed by the inhabitants; but in 848, having once more laid siege to that city, they were admitted into it at night by the Jews, who were there in great force; the city was given up to plunder and conflagration; a portion of the people was scattered abroad, and the rest put to the sword." Tours, Rouen, Angers, Orleans, Meaux, Toulouse, Saint-Lo, Bayeux, Evreux, Nantes, and Beauvais, some of them more than once, met the fate of Saintes, Limoges, and Bordeaux.

The monasteries and churches, wherein they hoped to find treasures, were the favorite objects of the Nortlimen's enterprises; in particular, they plundered, at the gates of Paris, the abbey of St.Germain des Pres and that of St.Denis, whence they carried off the abbot, who could not purchase his freedom, save by a heavy ransom.

They penetrated more than once into Paris itself, and subjected many of its quarters to contributions or pillage.

The populations grew into the habit of suffering and fleeing; and the local lords, and even the kings, made arrangement sometimes with the pirates either for saving the royal domains from the ravages, or for having their own share therein.