How I survived the record Paris heatwave while seven months pregnant

I n the summer of 2019, I had a “fun” idea for a piece. Paris was due to experience its hottest day in history, and I proposed travelling around the city trying out its various cooling-off strategies to see if they would help. Reader, it was not fun and they did not help . Last week, Paris experienced its worst period of catastrophic heat on record, worse than that day in 2019, and worse than in 2003, when a sustained heatwave killed nearly 15,000 people. I now live in a neighbourhood in Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest département in mainland France and one of the most exposed to extreme heat, and, to add to the complications, am seven months pregnant. So how did my week go this time? Tuesday When I found out I was pregnant, my greatest anxiety was the fact that I would be giving birth in summer – many French hospitals are not air-conditioned and not built to cope with heatwaves. I plan to ask about the extreme heat plan at an information session this afternoon, but the session is cancelled due to the heatwave. A passenger on a Paris Métro train during last weekend’s hot weather. Photograph: Annice Lyn/Getty Images A friend who is a couple of weeks further along than me has checked into an air-conditioned hotel with her husband because the heat in their apartment was giving her contractions. They tell me the place is full of other pregnant women, although for most this is not an affordable option. …