The unrelenting heatwave pummeling France has turned the iconic zinc roofs of Paris into a nightmare and a health hazard for people living directly underneath in often cramped attic dwellings that retain the searing heat and are impossible to ventilate.
Before the heat struck, Amelie Kenney could boast that she almost had it all: a tiny but cheap top-floor apartment in Paris, with an enviable view from its minuscule balcony of the French capital's iconic gray roofs and even, when she leans out far enough, up to the Sacré-Cœur basilica atop Montmartre.
