Tourists in France have been describing what it’s like to holiday in the country’s extreme weather, saying they’re largely trapped indoors as they try and avoid the dangerous heatwave that has taken hold.
On Tuesday, temperatures climbed past 44C (111F) in the rural commune of Pissos in the country’s south-west, as France endured its hottest day in history.
An hour north of Pissos in Bordeaux, one British woman told the Daily Mail that the popular tourist city feels ‘eerily deserted’ as people stay indoors or have already fled to the coast.
London-based PR Tori Thomas, 38, has spent a month working remotely there, renting out a one-bed apartment in the city on Airbnb.
She described the sun in recent days as ‘unbearable’, saying: ‘It got progressively hotter through the weekend and by Sunday, people just weren’t going out.
‘Tuesday was the first day where it was unbearable to be outside. You couldn’t stand in the sunshine, basically. I ended up going to a museum in a WWII submarine bunker to keep cool.
A photo of a normally packed square in Bordeaux’s old town taken on Thursday, when the weather in the city has risen to over 40 degrees
A pharmacy sign shows the temperature of 41 degrees Celsius in Bordeaux on Tuesday
Tori says the heat is so strong that standing outside in the sun for more than 10 minutes would likely make you feel ill, saying: ‘I’ve been going through six to eight big bottles of water every day.’
And the tarmac and slabs on the city’s pavements became so hot yesterday that the tourist said her flip flops became tacky, ‘melting onto the pavement’.
She added normally packed restaurant terraces and al fresco bar and cafe spaces were currently deserted: ‘Lots of restaurants are either closing early or not opening and, if they’re open, they’re only serving cold food – a) because no-one wants to eat anything hot and b) for the kitchen teams having to cook.’
The arrival of such dangerous heat has surprised the holidaymaker.
She said: ‘I chose to come here in June, rather than July and August thinking it would be cooler.
‘I’m staying in a one-bed apartment with an Airbnb that thankfully has air con.
‘When I booked, I wasn’t looking particularly for a place with air con but it has been a huge blessing in the last few days.’
A woman uses a hand fan to cool down in Bordeaux, south-west France, earlier today
A post on Facebook this week by a London-based tourist currently on a camping trip with his wife just outside Bordeaux
Museums with air con and ice cream shops are the only places experiencing a surge in business in Bordeaux. Pictured: La Maison du Glacier on Place Sainte-Pierre had queues around the block
Another London-based man, Iftikhar Qaisar, shared on Facebook how a European camping trip had seen him and his wife chase the shade in France, travelling north from Spain – only to find themselves in the middle of the country’s most dangerous heatwave to date.
He wrote on social media yesterday: ‘We are doing absolutely nothing except hunting for good shade and trying to survive this historic French heatwave.’
Qaisar added: ‘Spain greeted us with 36°C, so we cancelled our camping plans there and fled north, hoping France would be cooler.
‘Instead, we landed right in the furnace of a record-breaking 40°C to 46°C heatwave!
’Our usual 5-to-10-mile exploring walks are completely off the table. The only strategy is staying static in the shade.’
A British woman died at a French campsite and a three-year-old was found dead in a hot car in Paris yesterday as the death toll from a blistering European heatwave continued to climb.
The Miroir d’eau, Bordeaux’s largest reflecting pavement pool has become a late night attraction
In the west coast town of Tranche-sur-Mer, an elderly British woman collapsed and died at the Baie D’Aunis campsite on Wednesday.
On the same day, a three-year-old boy was found dead in a car in a Paris suburb, as mercury rose to 41C in the French capital.
France on Wednesday recorded the hottest day since measurements began in 1947, the national average temperature reaching 30C.
The heatwave is being driven by a weather pattern known as an Omega block, pushing temperatures as much as 18C above normal.
The phenomenon resembles the shape of the Greek letter Omega, with a bulbous middle trapping in heat over regions for extended periods, with cooler weather on its fringes.
The freak Saharan ‘heat dome’ is causing chaos across the rest of Europe including in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and in Spain where 212 have died in three days.
