France holiday - heatwave

France has a lot of Plan d'eau's ... outdoor swimming lakes/pools... often with shaded picnic areas.

Don't cancel just be prepared.
Body Cooling Spray.
A hot water bottle at night if it's hot filled with cold water.

Sorry but what UK supermarkets have the huge rows of veg, fruit, chesses, fish.. meats that you get in France??
Just come back from Morrisons, empty shelves, fruit/veg all wrapped, no bananas, limited choices in jams and chocolate, our nearest Tesco is terrible and was recently a topic on our local FB page for how awful it is.

When you can get fruit/veg, better eat the same day or it will be off.

This is a very common opinion in the area... its depressing going shopping here and yes i lived in France for 2 years, for work.

But it is totally subjective

Our Aldi is brand new and really good. Other Lidl and Aldi stores, awful.

To be fair, as supermarkets go, Leclerc is probably the best. French supermarket fruit and veg isn't great quality though (understatement!), I was really surprised when we moved here. We buy from the market sometimes, but mainly from the organic producer in our hamlet, her stuff is out of this world.

I know! I’ve just switched from using my local Super U and nearest Intermarche to driving to LeClerc. Went into our Lidl - where customer service hit new lows - even for France.
On the way home we discussed English and French supermarkets and Waitrose & UK Aldi are my favourites and variety of fruit & veg knocks France into a cocked chapeau.
When I visit the UK I cannot understand why South Coast supermarkets aren’t full of French shoppers. I think UK visitors are seduced by piles of French cheese on the counters - it mostly tastes the bloody same (apart from Beaufort & Roquefort and fresh goats cheese).
A crate of nectarines, peaches, apricots and a few grapes from my local grower €12.

Currently about 38° in the shade - lying by my pool reading a s/h Martine Cole.

We are currently in Embrun - north of Provence. It is slightly cooler here - mid 30s. We are out early and again late afternoon. We are lucky in that our gite has underfloor cooling plus fans and is well insulated. It is hotter than we hoped but we are managing!

I think only you know if you will be ok, some people just get on with it. I would go but also I’m just south of Brittany at the moment with my children, it’s 24 degrees, I chose this Eurocamp site because my 14yr doesn’t really do the heat, he managed Rome at co the start of July because we took taxied everywhere and had air con in the hotel,

Thanks for sharing this- I have never seen any sort of advice or opinion from experts on how much flying is reasonable or desirable so I find that useful. It actually sounds reasonable to me, but I know a LOT of people would think that is outrageous (and would ignore the advice anyway).

I last flew long haul ten years ago and have no plans to do so anytime soon- can’t afford it anyway and hate flying!

Short haul I’m afraid I generally do one return trip most years (very rarely more). Have probably flown short haul 7 out of the last ten years. So I could still do better with that.

Hope it goes ok @Lily27

We've just checked in to the hotel. Youngest child has only burst into tears 3 times so all good.

You adapt. Up early and get out and about. Back by noon. Relax and chill. Don’t cook indoors!

Always have plenty of water with you and a hat!

Enjoy your holiday.

Currently in Marseille and it's 36 on the coast. It doesn't feel too bad although we are very full of icy water and almost sloshing.

Full article is here.
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/madrid-wildfires-spain-greece-heat-b2805971.html

39-40 is usual in southern Europe.

This is on independent.co.uk.

On Monday, the French national weather authority, Meteo-France, placed 12 departments on red alert, the country's highest heat warning, anticipating exceptional heat stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean plains.
Forty-one other departments were under lower-level orange alerts, as was the neighbouring microstate of Andorra, between France and Spain.
"Don't be fooled - this isn't 'normal, it's summer.' It's not normal, it's a nightmare," agricultural climatologist Serge Zaka told broadcaster BFMTV from Montauban in France's Tarn-et-Garonne department, where the blistering heat pressed relentlessly throughout the day.

Although not failsafe, we went as soon as the English school holidays started to northern Spain and it was definitely cooler (and therefore we did much more!) than when we have been in August in previous years.

Boat trips are a great idea! Recently went on boat trips too when it was searing heat.
It's lovely as you get the sea breeze.. just make sure you've got hats and suncream.

The boat we were on was quite big and had a small bar and you could sit downstairs for shade if needed.

Not read the whole thread so apologies if this has been mentioned but it certainly used to be the case that men/boys could only use public swimming pools if they had budgie style swimming trunks rather than surf shorts or even close fit longer swim shorts. If there is a pool near by then your DH & any DS might want to buy some before you go.

It is not just the temperature

It is how long the temperatures have been up

Prolonged dry 35s can be worse than a spike of 39 in terms of risks like reserve fires, water quality, water availability etc

Even here people are needing to adjust and adapt their holidays.

Camp sites are banning BBQing and fires, anyone who puts their kids in a non fully shaded pitch this week are crazy, and there aren't that many shaded pitches usually.

Idoling older campervans in coast road traffic jams is super dangerous in this heat. Vehicles are over heating. Smaller water bodies are too low for good water quality so that needs reassessing too

"Just go" is moronic

Either go with adjustments and caution
or don't & plan B

Do not be an idiot and "just go"

OP it's not just about the accomodation: how are you getting around there? What's the summer traffic like? Etc.

I don't know why people are being rude, there's a big difference between 30-35 degrees (normal) and 40 degrees. We just escaped Lyon it was 41 degrees, that is not the usual summer. Now in the Alps its still 24 degrees, its lovely for us but you talk to locals and they are so worried about the future.