Paris —
As France braces for another heatwave, it’s barely recovered from the last one. Meteorologists expect scorching temperatures to return this week, and with them, the same question that was asked repeatedly in June: why won’t France just turn on the air conditioning?
Some people are already taking things into their own hands. Dozens of people lined up outside several Lidl stores across the Paris region on Thursday, all hoping to get their hands on an air conditioning unit. In Aubervilliers, a Paris suburb, the doors gave way under the pressure of the crowd, and fights broke out among shoppers. “I saw people get trampled,” one shopper told Le Parisien newspaper. “I was in shock, I got shoved around in every direction, and unfortunately I didn’t leave with an AC unit,” another said.
Only around 24% of French households have air conditioning according to France’s energy transition agency – up from 18% just two years ago, but still far below the roughly 50% seen in neighboring Italy.
Alexia, a 26-year-old living on the outskirts of Paris, says she caved when she found out another heatwave was on the way. “All the air conditioners I had seen to potentially buy were out of stock. So I rushed to get another one before there was absolutely none left.”
