PARIS (AP) — France gritted its teeth Monday for a week of record-busting temperatures, sweltering under a grueling heat wave that combines daytime highs above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and sleep-robbing sweaty nights.
The national weather service, Meteo France, said that most of the country — the largest in the European Union and second most populated — is entering what is described as a "plateau" of unrelenting heat-wave conditions that isn't forecast to start easing before Friday at the earliest.
In a country without widespread air conditioning, people, businesses and services tried to adapt as best they could. Hundreds of schools were closed on Monday and many hundreds more were canceling some classes, the education minister said.
