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France is in the middle of its third heat wave of the summer. For cities like Paris, the prolonged scorching temperatures used to be rare. The city and its inhabitants are changing to cope. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Europe is warming faster than any other continent, according to Copernicus, the European Union's climate monitoring service. And this June beat all records. Officials say there were more than 2,000 excess deaths caused by the extreme heat. Deaths rose by 62% in the Paris region, Europe's most densely populated city. The French government acted quickly after June's record-breaking heat wave, installing AC units in hospitals like Hopital Georges-Pompidou in Paris' 15th arrondissement. Doctors Simon Pamart (ph) and Corinne Attia (ph) are outside taking a break. They say they no longer fear the building's glass exterior heating it up like a greenhouse.
CORINNE ATTIA: (Speaking French).
SIMON PAMART: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "They've been putting in AC units for the past two weeks, and it's a lot better," say the doctors. "It was extremely complicated before for us and the patients." Culturally, the French are not fans of AC, which is seen as unaesthetic and wasteful. But there is an acceptance that fans will not be enough against the new temperatures.
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BEARDSLEY: In Paris' 14th arrondissement, the cobblestone traffic circle surrounding the iconic lion statue at Place Denfert-Rochereau is being pedestrianized and replaced by trees and greenery. Pop-up forests like this are taking the place of stone and concrete across the city to cool things down. Walking nearby, 37-year-old Parisian Caroline Dubois (ph) says this is all necessary for the new climate.
CAROLINE DUBOIS: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "We knew it was coming. We've talked about it for so long," she says. "Every summer will be like this now."
DUBOIS: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Dubois says she's lucky to work in an air conditioned office. But schools don't have AC, and her 6-year-old is sent home when it's too hot, forcing her to find childcare. "I don't think we've even begun to measure how this will change our lives," she says.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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