{"id":686378,"date":"2026-07-11T18:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/686378\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T18:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:04:10","slug":"life-in-france-in-40-degree-heat-parisian-heat-traps-are-only-part-of-the-equation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/686378\/","title":{"rendered":"Life in France in 40 degree heat: Parisian heat traps are only part of the equation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

From crossing to the shady side of the street when it\u2019s not yet 9am, enviously eyeing up the tourists with their pastel parasols, to struggling to sleep at night even with an ice pack on their heads, Parisians are developing individual coping strategies amid a succession of near back-to-back heatwaves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paris\u2019s zinc-clad rooftops and handsome Haussmannian cut stone buildings with their large, elegant windows \u2013 in short, everything that gives it its charm \u2013 start to feel decidedly less romantic as the thermometer creeps up to and beyond 40 degrees. After enduring record-breaking temperatures last month, France<\/a> is currently in the grip of its third heatwave of the year.<\/p>\n

The extreme heat is stifling and deadly<\/a>. Provisional figures estimate more than 2,000 people died of heat-related causes at the end of June. French health authorities say that over the past decade, more than 14,000 deaths have been attributed to the population\u2019s exposure to heat specifically during heatwaves, and nearly 40,000 over the entire monitoring period.<\/p>\n

Anecdotal evidence suggests that dense urban centres such as Paris are beginning to lose some of their appeal for those seeking greener, cooler neighbourhoods to live in and raise their families. While it wouldn\u2019t be true to say there\u2019s been an exodus from the capital, researchers say a gradual rebalancing away from city centres appears to be under way, a trend accelerated by the Covid pandemic and its repeated gruelling lockdowns. Many urban planners in France believe climate change<\/a> could reinforce that shift, playing a more prominent role in migration patterns as heatwaves become more frequent and intense. <\/p>\n

Paris has invested heavily in efforts to mitigate the urban heat island effect \u2013 planting trees, pedestrianising streets, redesigning public spaces \u2013 but experts say there\u2019s no quick fix when temperatures reach such extremes. Adding to residents\u2019 woes is the fact that a large proportion of the buildings, constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were built to retain heat rather than expel it. During a prolonged hot spell, poorly-insulated flats \u2013 known colloquially as \u201cbouilloires thermiques\u201d, loosely translated as Thermos flasks \u2013 absorb the relentless heat by day and are unable to fully cool down at night. <\/p>\n

Buildings are only part of the equation when it comes to adapting to climate change. As this week\u2019s disruption to the Tour de France illustrates, some regions are already on the front line of that battle<\/p>\n

Remarkably, construction of these heat traps is not solely a thing of the distant past and \u2013 they were still being built as recently as six or seven years ago, according to Antoine Poth\u00e9, co-founder of property firm Visten Immobilier. Since then, environmental regulations introduced in phases since 2022 \u2013 partly in response to the warming climate \u2013 have tightened technical rules around the thermal performance of new buildings. <\/p>\n

As many Parisians are discovering, while it is possible to renovate older properties to a high environmental standard, the work is often complex and the costs prohibitive. On top of that, homeowners are restricted from making alterations to the facades, rooftops or windows of listed buildings. In contrast, new residential units can be designed from the outset, Poth\u00e9 points out, to minimise solar heat gain and maximise natural ventilation \u2013 features that are difficult, if not impossible, to fully retrofit into older homes. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0France\u2019s buildings are becoming unlivable amid heatwave. But air conditioning remains divisiveOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speed at which heat enters a building can matter almost as much as how much heat enters it,\u201d he says. \u201cSo in a well-designed building, heat will take longer to penetrate the walls and roof.\u201d The use of wood fibre insulation \u2013 while more expensive than cheaper styrofoam alternatives \u2013 has also been a game changer for the industry because it slows down the passage of heat as it moves through a building, leaving homes noticeably cooler during the hottest hours of the day. But the developer says improved insulation needs to be combined with better design in order to be effective. <\/p>\n

Buildings are only part of the equation when it comes to adapting to climate change. As this week\u2019s disruption to the Tour de France<\/a> illustrates, some regions are already on the front line of that battle. Wildfire season has begun a month earlier than usual this summer, with thousands of hectares of land already burned. Questions are being asked about whether and how quickly the country can rise to these urgent challenges. The government is looking to neighbouring Spain for inspiration. There has also been heated political debate about air conditioning, with even the Greens accepting that it may need to be rolled out across schools, workplaces and hospitals. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0France restricts alcohol consumption and cancels some events as temperatures pass 40 degreesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Despite the grumbling, people are doing their best on an individual level to adapt to what feels like a new normal, and putting alternative strategies in place to get through the immediate crisis \u2013 much as they do during regular debilitating transport strikes. One, Marie-Fran\u00e7oise \u2013 an older woman from the foothills of the Pyr\u00e9en\u00e9es \u2013 was evacuated last weekend as wildfire flames approached her home near Perpignan. When quizzed about her ordeal, she was in cheerful form on French TV. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust don\u2019t ask me to smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019d been in such a rush to leave the house, she\u2019d fled without her false teeth. <\/p>\n

Sharon Gaffney is a journalist based in Paris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From crossing to the shady side of the street when it\u2019s not yet 9am, enviously eyeing up the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[556,1397,819,5979,90,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-686378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-environment","tag-france","tag-heat","tag-science","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}