The tables are set up next to an old train. A few neon lights light up the tunnel of the Petite Ceinture, the disused railroad line that runs around Paris. Pupils from a primary school in the 13^th arrondissement are poring over handouts. "Even here, we have to work," says one. Suddenly, some of them stand up, hand to mouth, as if about to vomit. Another signals that he has a headache. The teachers, headmistress and Red Cross staff get all the students out into the open air. They suspect carbon monoxide poisoning due to a malfunctioning generator – we have to wait for the fire department. "They're a few minutes late because of the demonstration, the Place d'Italie is right next door," said Pénélope Komitès, Paris's deputy mayor. A few hundred meters away, the unions are organizing a march against austerity.

In fact, none of the students are ill. They are playing a part in an exercise organized by Paris city hall on October 13. The aim is to prepare residents and emergency services for a heatwave of over 50°C. A mock TV news clip was made to recreate the feeling of a city plagued by an intense heatwave for the past 10 days. On a virtual Twitter feed, fake parent profiles worried about schools evacuating to naturally cooled "safe havens". And unexpected events, such as the failure of a generator, are included in the scenario.

In a secluded room, a fake crisis unit calls the real secretariat general of the defense and security zone to request the transport of priority personnel, the regional express train RER B supposedly broke down due to the heat. The organization Radioamateur France has set up an antenna to ensure radio communication, in the imagined event of a failure of typical infrastructure. The civil defense, the energy company Enedis, Paris's transport network RATP, emergency service SAMU social, retirement and nursing homes, charities and volunteer residents... In all, 142 people are mobilized on the site. "The key to crisis management is coordination: Everything is scripted, but the participants are not aware of the course of events," explains Ziad Touat of Crisotech, the service provider who helped Paris City Hall organize the day in two arrondissements, the 19^th and 13^th.

Survey of air-conditioned or temperate premises

It's a realistic scenario, and the hypothesis of a 50°C temperature peak in Paris seems increasingly likely. Although the summer of 2023 was much milder in the capital, the city already saw a maximum temperature of 42.6°C on July 25, 2019. In June 2021, areas at roughly the same latitude have already got close to this symbolic mark, for example British Columbia in Canada with temperatures of 49°C. "Temperatures over 50°C are already occasionally recorded during heat peaks, at the city's hottest points," wrote the "Paris at 50°C" report issued in July 2023 by a Paris Council fact-finding mission.

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