The sun is high, and some inhabitants try to escape the stifling heat by taking refuge around the lake of Créteil, in the Val-de-Marne. A 42-hectare body of water where you can enjoy a light breeze in the shade of the plane trees. Adrien Cazal, a 21-year-old electrician, took a week’s vacation to better withstand the heat wave. “I put CCTV cameras outside, I couldn’t work anymore. It’s unbearable “, he says. If swimming is prohibited in this artificial lake created in a former quarry, Saïd Ryaad, an 18-year-old student, still plans to swim with his three friends “because the heat wave is crazy”. “I had a fever a few days ago with the heat”, he explains, his towel and a pack of water under his arm. A few joggers, men in their fifties, are pushing their limits but probably not the danger.
Throughout Tuesday, July 19, which marked the peak of the heat wave in the northern and eastern regions of France, Parisians and residents of suburban communities faced extreme temperatures, which made them all the more difficult to live in dense, mineral cities with few trees. The capital experienced its second hottest day since records began, with 40.5°C – far from the absolute record of 42.6°C recorded in July 2019. At the end of the day, the air quality was affected by a forest fire in Yvelines and rising smoke from the fires raging in Gironde.
A day that Pauline Teil particularly dreaded. “I try not to think about climate change, or watch the news, it worries me to the highest degree”explains this 24-year-old psychologist, who works in Créteil. “Every year, we break temperature records. Banning plastic straws isn’t going to change anything.”creaks his colleague Fiona Severan, a lawyer of the same age.
At the same time, Place de la Bastille in Paris, hot air blows on onlookers. Skateboarders give up sliding to take refuge in the shade. Next to the Arsenal basin, blue tents are exposed to the sun, in which about sixty unaccompanied minors live. The camp was set up about fifty days ago by the Utopia 56 association, while waiting for the public authorities to welcome these young people in appropriate support and accommodation structures.
Some are still dozing in their tents, others are nibbling gazelle horns invaded by wasps. Ibrahim (his first name has been changed), 14, from Ivory Coast, is still withstanding the heat before the expected peak in the afternoon: “I’m going to drink lots of water and put myself in the shade of the trees. » Flore and Luc, members of the association, feel helpless without an outstretched hand from the Paris City Hall. “We encourage them to drink and go to day centres. »
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