‘It’s like a furnace’: French struggle with heat-trap homes as climate inequality grows

L iving in a sweltering, seventh-floor flat on a concrete housing estate south of Paris, Samira said she was feeling desperate as France experienced its highest temperatures on record this week. “Yesterday I sat down and cried, I thought I’m going to die,” said the 35-year-old single parent and former building caretaker. Her flat in Ris-Orangis in Essonne is, like millions of apartments in France , poorly insulated and lacking in outside window shutters. “Blazing sun hits my windows all day – I can’t breathe, I feel dizzy, there is no air,” she said. “My home is an oven, it’s unbearable. I can only use a fan for short bursts, for fear of electricity costs. I only get two hours’ sleep a night. I’m exhausted. The days feel endless trying to protect my son from the heat. And I know these temperatures are only going to get worse in time. The government only ever acts at the last minute. Not enough is being done long-term to protect people.” Samira’s 10-year-old son, Issam, attends one of the 1,800 schools in France that have been closed because they are dangerously hot. “My classroom on the top floor reached 40 degrees inside,” he said. “It was too hot to have lessons, so we just played games.” He normally goes to bed at 9pm but he has been up until midnight because it’s only manageable to be outside very late or very early. …