It was France's most severe heatwave on record: almost 8,000 excess deaths, some 120,000 hectares of scorched land, livestock and crops lost, birds falling silent in blackened forests. And for Juliette Decq, a climate consultant and mother of two, it was also the summer her home stopped feeling safe.
The turning point, Decq says, came in late May, when the first heatwave kicked in – weeks before most people expected any extreme heat. By the end of the month, temperatures in the capital had hit a record 34C.
