The fan was running at full speed. Inès Vullt, 20, had flung open the skylight of her tiny 16-square-meter studio, tucked under the roof of a building in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. She desperately tried to let in some fresh air. Yet during the heatwave on Friday, June 20, even the slightest breeze was rare. It was the student's second summer in this apartment and it was the same story as last year: "There's always a 10°C difference between the entrance of the building and my room. It's a furnace."
Since Thursday, June 19, a heatwave has swept across France. On Saturday, 16 departments remained on orange alert for extreme heat, and around 60 were on yellow alert, including Paris. Temperatures reached 36°C in parts of the capital, and were not expected to drop below 21°C during the night.
Inside the young woman's studio, books and old rap CDs were piled up next to a futon she barely uses anymore. "I'd rather sleep on the floor, directly on the ground. Even with a rug, it heats up too fast." The previous night had been difficult: "It was awful. I slept with my head in front of the fan, but it did nothing, it just moved hot air around."
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