Baking in Paris

Four consecutive heat waves since June. A historical first for Paris in summer, with record-setting high temperatures. It’s exhausting.

There are certainly hotter places in the world. But the problem is that this is relatively new for Paris. France, like much of Europe, has always been more concerned with chilly weather than warm weather. Cities and buildings are designed to conserve heat, not to shed it. Air conditioning is rare. So when a heat wave occurs, people literally die from the heat.

Forty years ago, “summer” in Paris meant a few days in August where the temperature might exceed 75° F. Nobody needed or installed AC back then. But now, summer in Paris might mean an overnight low of 76°, and a daily high of 106°.

I got my first air conditioner in Paris in the 1990s, when summers started to get too warm for my liking. I ran the AC (a mobile unit) on a handful of the hottest days of the year. Over time, that handful of days expanded into a week or two; then several weeks. During these past few heatwaves, I’ve run the AC almost non-stop for days at a time. It’s expensive—several euro a day—but it’s preferable to the emergency room.

Most people don’t have AC in Paris, and right now they can’t get it, because stores have sold out on fans and air conditioners, and installers of central air are booked for months to come. As a result, thousands of people have died. The media seem to want to emphasize that heat stroke is affecting mostly the very young and the elderly, but after a few days of excessive heat, all age groups start to suffer. Some people living alone are found dead in their apartments, where temperatures might reach 115°. The Parisian architecture that helps lower heating costs in winter turns small apartments into barbecues in summer, especially top-floor apartments that bake beneath Haussmannian metal roofs. Some people (more than 200) have drowned after a temperature shock when they tried to go for a swim in a river or lake.

Public transportation also becomes an ordeal during heat waves. Buses have been measured to reach 120° inside, endangering both the driver and the passengers. Some buses are air-conditioned, but ecologists have opposed widespread adoption of AC in buses (and everywhere else), so these buses are a minority.

Even hospitals don’t have AC, which to me seems like a particularly egregious oversight given that people in the hospital often require tightly controlled environments.

A huge heat wave in 2003 killed 15,000 people. These last four heatwaves this year have been cumulatively more severe. The government promised all sorts of actions in 2003, but nothing was actually done, apart from creation of a new tax, the proceeds from which seem to have been sucked into the black hole of ever-increasing government spending. This time around, new promises are being made: plans are being announced meetings are being organized, press conferences are being held, and so on, but I don’t expect any results. The reality is that everyone needs to accept the need for AC when it gets hot.