Sweating it out in Paris

A 'canicule' or heatwave means I'm tired, hot, lazy.

Photo by Marie-Sophie Tékian on Unsplash

This week ahead in Paris, it’s going to be HOT.

Air conditioning is a luxury few can afford. Also, the buildings are so old, the idea of installing central air is nearly impossible. It’s just not a thing. So, we suffer collectively.

When I first moved here in 2022, I learned the terms for ‘heatwave’ - la canicule or vague de chaleur. And I just discovered there’s actually a difference between the two, even though they translate to the same thing.

According to Météo-France (the official weather service), a vague de chaleur is when the temperature is above 23.4 degrees Celsius (74.12F) for at least three days in a row, with one of those days reaching 25.3 Celsius (77.54F). I find this interesting because I don’t think those temperatures are particularly hot.

A canicule, on the other hand, is when there are at least 3 days of ‘very high temperatures’ during the day and night. Each French department, the equivalent to a province, has its own determination of exactly what temperature and duration qualifies as a canicule.

France began keeping heatwave records in 1947. 2022 was a particularly hot year, but before that, the worst year recorded was 2003. That August, France-Météo recorded two weeks of sustained high heat. As a result, the government came up with ‘Vigilance’, a sort of warning system for people to prepare for high temperatures.

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This week I’m feeling lazy because of the heat. So, I’m sharing some fun old cartoons and illustrations depicting French life under a canicule. The cartoon below from the 19th century jokes that someday there’ll be an in-home theater that overheated citizens can watch from the bathtub (Netflix and soak?).

The illustration below from a 1911 edition of Le Petit Journal has the caption: ‘the misdeeds of the heat: a victim of sunstroke’.

These illustrations are from the 19th and early 20th centuries, when clothing styles had much more coverage than we have today. Imagine wearing a suit or a dress with stockings and a corset in the hot summer heat!

Below is a good example, from an 1884 newspaper showing someone watering the ground while folks are lined up to get drinks:

Then there’s this 1864 drawing from Journal Amusant (‘Funny Newspaper’) showing people suffering from the blazing force of la canicule.

I’ve lived in a lot of different places in the northern hemisphere, and I’ve learned that it’s impossible to avoid the heat of summer. In Beijing, a common sight was to see men pull their shirts up to expose their bellies. In Qatar, air conditioning is your friend because you’d die without it. As a kid in Maine, I grew up with a box fan running all night next to my bed with a wet washcloth handy to cool myself down. Remember those days?

1933 photo of men drinking from a Paris water fountain (cups attached!) during a heat wave

In spite of all the sweating and at least two showers a day, I am very happy to be in Paris for the summer. There’s an energy about the city and the sun stays up late and to be honest, I don’t mind sweating it out… too much.