Almost thirty French departments were yesterday on alert for high temperatures and especially for the risk of strong storms with electrical equipment, including hailstorms that threatened the vineyards. Several railway lines stopped working as a preventative measure. The most affected regions were those of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, in the center of the Hexagon, as well as Alsace and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The heatwave episode catches many French people on vacation, with the campsites – which they are very fond of – at full capacity.
The new heat wave contributes to the feeling, more and more present, that some areas of the country are becoming unbearable during some months of the year. According to the latest estimates, 5,000 people perished from the heat in the summer of 2022. Even normally cooler regions, such as Brittany, were not spared. In Brest it reached 40 degrees Celsius.
Warming has an effect on vacation destinations and second homes. In recent years there has been more demand for houses and apartments in areas with a cooler and rainier climate, such as Brittany and Normandy. The Côte d'Azur loses prestige due to high prices, overcrowding and heat.
The constant rise in temperatures and the lack of rain have been a very serious problem this year in some areas of the south, with difficulties in supplying water for human and agricultural use. In some municipalities they have stopped granting building permits because there will not be enough water if the number of houses and inhabitants increases.
The city of Paris, one of the densest in Europe, is already taking measures in the event that there are periodic heat phases in the future with temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius. The municipal team, a left-wing and environmental coalition led by the socialist Anne Hidalgo, recently presented its Local Bioclimatic Urbanism Plan, an ambitious initiative to adapt the city, with the multiplication of green areas and refuge areas where its inhabitants can go to freshen up Much of the capital's housing stock is old and not at all adapted to the heat. One of the ambitions, linked to the drainage works of the Seine for next year's Olympic Games, is to once again allow bathing in the river, which has been prohibited for more than a century for hygienic reasons, and to create several beaches . It will at least be a relief from a future that promises regular periods of sweltering temperatures.
