Holidaying in furnace France: Tourists in ‘eerily deserted’ Bordeaux describe misery of 42C heatwave, saying shoes ‘melt’ on the pavements and even 10 minutes in the sun is ‘unbearable’
Tourists in France describe what it is like to holiday in the country’s extreme weather, saying they are largely stuck indoors as they try to avoid the dangerous heatwave affecting them.
On Tuesday, France experienced the hottest day in its history, with temperatures exceeding 44C (111F) in the rural commune of Pissos in the country’s southwest.
An hour north of Pissos in Bordeaux, a British woman told the Daily Mail that the popular tourist town felt ‘eerily abandoned’ as people stayed indoors or had already fled to the coast.
London-based PR Tori Thomas, 38, rented a one-bedroom flat in the city on Airbnb, working there remotely for a month.
Describing the sun as ‘unbearable’ in recent days, he said: ‘Over the weekend it got increasingly hotter and on Sunday people couldn’t go out.
‘Tuesday was the first day that being outside was unbearable. You basically couldn’t stand sunlight. To cool off, I went to the museum in a World War II submarine shelter.
Photograph of a normally packed square in Bordeaux’s old town, taken on Thursday when temperatures soared above 40 degrees
A pharmacy sign shows the temperature in Bordeaux on Tuesday was 41 degrees Celsius
Tori says the heat is so strong that standing outside in the sun for more than 10 minutes can make you feel sick: ‘I drink six to eight large bottles of water every day.’
Yesterday, the asphalt and slabs on the city’s sidewalks became so hot that the tourist said his flip-flops got hot. sticky, ‘melting to the pavement’.
He added that normally packed restaurant terraces and outdoor bar and cafe areas are now empty: ‘Many restaurants either close early or don’t open, and if they are open they only serve cold food – a) because no one wants to eat anything hot and b) kitchen teams have to cook.’
The arrival of such dangerous heat surprised the holidaymakers.
He said: ‘I chose to come here in June instead of July and August, thinking it would be cooler.
‘I’m staying in a one-bedroom apartment in an Airbnb that thankfully has air conditioning.
‘I wasn’t particularly looking for a place with air conditioning when I booked but it’s been such a blessing over the last few days.’
A woman uses a hand fan to cool down in Bordeaux, southwestern France.
A post shared on Facebook this week by a London-based tourist who is currently on a camping trip with his wife just outside Bordeaux.
The only place where there is an increase in business in Bordeaux is the museums with air conditioning and ice cream shops. Picture: There were queues around the block at La Maison du Glacier in Sainte-Pierre Square
Another man living in London, Iftikhar Qaisar, posted on Facebook that on a camping trip in Europe, he and his wife chased shadow in France, traveled north from Spain and found themselves in the middle of the country’s most dangerous heatwave to date.
He wrote on social media yesterday: ‘We are doing absolutely nothing but looking for good shade and trying to survive this historic heatwave in France.’
Qaisar added: ‘Spain greeted us with 36°C so we canceled our camping plans there and fled north hoping France would be cooler.
‘Instead, we landed right in the middle of a record-breaking 40°C to 46°C heatwave!
’Our usual 5 to 10 mile exploratory walks are completely off the table. The only strategy is to remain static in the shadow.’
As the death toll continues to rise in Europe due to a severe heat wave, a British woman died in Paris yesterday at a campsite in France and a three-year-old child was found dead in a hot car.
Miroir d’eau, Bordeaux’s largest reflective 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 the mercury rose to 41C in the French capital.
France on Wednesday recorded the hottest day since measurements began in 1947; The national average temperature reached 30C.
The heatwave is being driven by a weather pattern known as the Omega block, pushing temperatures up to 18C above normal.
This phenomenon resembles the shape of the Greek letter Omega; A bulbous midsection traps warm air in areas for long periods, with cooler air at its fringes.
Freak Saharan ‘heat dome’ is causing chaos across the rest of Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Spain, where 212 people have died in three days.
