"Trapped in the Heat: One Woman's Desperate Struggle in a City on Fire As France swelters through its worst heatwave on record, a resident of Paris recounts her harrowing experience trying to cope with the extreme temperatures. From the scorching streets of the French capital to the poverty-stricken suburbs, the heat is taking a devastating toll on its citizens. With temperatures expected to soar even higher next week, those on the frontlines of this crisis are fighting for survival. One woman, seven months pregnant and living in the poorest department in mainland France, shares her personal story of struggle and resilience in the face of unrelenting heat."
It feels as if we are being abandoned to our fate by those in power, with further extreme heat expected next weekIn the summer of 2019, I had a “fun” idea for a piece. Paris was due to experience its hottest day in history, and I proposed travelling around the city trying out its various cooling-off strategies to see if they would help. Reader, it was not fun and they did not help.Last week, Paris experienced its worst period of catastrophic heat on record, worse than that day in 2019, and worse than in 2003, when a sustained heatwave killed nearly 15,000 people. I now live in a neighbourhood in Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest département in mainland France and one of the most exposed to extreme heat, and, to add to the complications, am seven months pregnant. So how did my week go this time? Continue reading...
