France is in the grip of its third heatwave of the year, coming less than a week after June’s record-breaking spell, which brought the country’s hottest three days on record and was linked to around 1,000 excess deaths. Paris has been back under an orange heat alert since Monday, with this latest heatwave expected to last around 12 days and temperatures forecast to reach 40-42°C in parts of France. Some long-range forecast models have even suggested temperatures could approach 50°C later this month, although that remains highly uncertain.
For many Parisians, surviving the heat has become less about staying indoors than finding water wherever they can. Outdoor swimming spots have filled, the newly reopened sections of the River Seine have been packed, and even the Canal Saint-Martin has become an unofficial refuge.
Hannah Horsfield, 30, a British expat who has lived in Paris on and off for the past seven years, tells Katie Strick why she finally joined the locals in the water.
It’s late afternoon on a July Wednesday in Paris and I’m sitting in the dark in my fourth-floor one-bedroom flat in the city’s 15th arrondissement, just a 10-minute walk from the Eiffel Tower. I’ve spent most of the past few weeks here, curtains firmly shut and windows closed, trying to keep the flat at around 25°C. That might not sound cool – but it’s blissful compared to the plus-40°C outside.
