A heatwave extending is expected this week, with temperatures expected to approach 40C. Rail services will be cut to avoid air-conditioning failures and Paris has authorised swimming in the Canal Saint-Martin.
The latest heatwave to hit France is the second spell of unusually hot weather this year, after a scorching week in May broke records in half the country.
“A heatwave episode will gradually set in across the country this week,” said Christelle Robert of Météo-France, France's national weather service.
Temperatures hit 37C in some areas on Wednesday and could reach 40C in several regions by Sunday, including the Rhône Valley and the Île-de-France region around Paris.
Météo-France added that the rise in temperatures would be made worse by the summer solstice – the longest day of the year – bringing more hours of sunshine.
Orange alerts
Twenty-six departments have been placed under an orange heatwave alert from midday on Thursday, stretching from the Paris Basin to Haute-Savoie in the Alps.
Météo-France said the alert would remain in place until midnight on Friday for a heatwave that “is expected to last until next week”, peaking on Sunday or Monday.
Temperatures of 35C are expected to be “frequently reached” on Thursday in the Paris Basin, the Loire Valley, the Grand Est region, Auvergne and the Lyon area.
“Temperatures will even reach 38C in south-western and western Burgundy,” the service said.
Exam season
The high temperatures are putting pressure on pupils who are sitting written exams for the baccalaureate in overheated classrooms, which finish on Thursday.
According to Education Minister Édouard Geffray, the oral exams could be postponed in some areas. He added that he hoped “no exams” would take place in the afternoons.
Mayors again face a choice between closing schools at the risk of disrupting teaching, or keeping them open, sometimes at the expense of children’s wellbeing.
“At 40 degrees, I’ll close the schools,” said Emmanuel Denis, Green Party mayor of Tours, on the Loire river. In June 2025, 2,200 schools were closed during a heatwave.
“We won’t get through heatwaves simply by saying we must do our utmost to keep schools open whilst drinking water regularly,” said Guillaume Perrin, a specialist in the renovation of public buildings.
A plan to renovate 40,000 schools by 2034 was launched in 2023, notably through the “green fund”.
Canal swimming
Meanwhile, Paris has authorised swimming in part of the Canal Saint-Martin, in the east of the capital, to turn it into a “genuine means of cooling off”.
The move came after young people plunged into the canal during the scorching week in May. Swimming has been allowed since Wednesday evening under lifeguard supervision.
“Spending an enormous amount of energy, municipal police and national police to stop young people from swimming when it was 40 degrees ... struck us as slightly absurd,” said Emmanuel Grégoire, the Socialist Party mayor of Paris. He reminded young people that jumping from bridges was dangerous and remained forbidden.
“Make the most of it, and take care in this heat,” Grégoire said in a post on X showing crowds in swimwear in search of relief.
Alexandra Cordebard, the mayor of the capital’s 10th arrondissement, said allowing swimming in the canal earlier than scheduled in July was “a new way of fighting climate change and adapting the city”.
Deprived areas, according to the Fondation pour le logement – the Foundation for Housing for the Disadvantaged – are disproportionately affected by summer energy poverty and “boiling-pot homes".
Rail cuts
SNCF – the French national rail operator – has cancelled 71 Intercity trains scheduled from Thursday to Monday to “prevent potential air-conditioning failures linked to the very high temperatures”.
The affected lines are Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse, Paris-Clermont-Ferrand and the Bordeaux-Marseille Southern Transversal. The operator said the cancellations represented “around 0.1 percent of the trains operated by SNCF Voyageurs on a daily basis”.
On these routes, older Corail trains have air-conditioning systems that are not designed to cope with very high temperatures and could fail during journeys.
“France is experiencing heatwaves that are increasingly frequent, numerous and intense – a clear sign of climate change," said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Météo-France.
The weather service said of the 51 heatwaves recorded nationwide since 1947, 34 have occurred since 2000 and 26 since 2011.
(with newswires)
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