Lifeguards keep watch from their station over a packed lake beach during a heatwave at the Bordeaux Lac beach, in Bordeaux, south-western France on June 23, 2026.
Workers sweated in choking heat and pupils stayed home on Tuesday as an early-summer heatwave smothered much of Europe, with France suffering its hottest day on record.
Schools and tourist sites closed early and railways cancelled journeys as several countries issued red alerts for much of their territory in the record-breaking heat.
"It's getting a bit more unbearable, it's hot," said Vadim Bobu, a 31-year-old building worker labouring on a construction site in Paris.
But "we don't have a choice, we have to pay the bills", he said.
