To dread this holiday

[Numberedout]

Posting here for traffic.

I'm having a meltdown and posting on here as have noone in real life that would understand.

Have ME/CFS, am perimenapausal,.

We have a train journey from the UK to Italy booked this week with a stop to Paris on the way. I have checked the weather and it's going to be the hottest it's been this year.

I'm travelling with teens and honestly am driving everyone crazy by stressing about the heat!

I have done the following:

Bought cooling towels, hats, loose clothes

Taking a hand held fan

Will get a hot water bottle to fill with cold water and put in the fridge.

Has anyone done this sort of holiday and enjoyed it despite the heat?

Actually looking around, the aircon may workig a bit too well, a lot of my fellow passengers have cardigans or hoodies on!

I just came back from Rome op. It was torture 🥹
I didn’t want to go but dh booked something in Rome ages ago, I did tell him it’s going to be too hot end of June but he didn’t listen. So we went…
The amount of tourists is just something else. The city feels like a theme park. There is nobody else but tourists and tourism workers, tourist shops and tourist restaurants.
It was difficult to admire the beauty of the city because it felt invaded.

I hated being part of the problem and I am never going back to southern Europe between May and October, but I blame dh for doing this to us. I have been to Rome before the pandemic, March or April and it was a different experience.

The heat was impossible and had to stay indoors between 1 and 6, then it was still 32 degrees.
As someone who doesn’t nap, the afternoon naps we took, made me feel like a zombie, I felt 10 times worse than before the nap.
Sorry- just adding my negative poison ☠️ to balance the cheery opinions 🤗🫶

We do this journey once a year with the DC (age 9 and 5)...the train bit will be fine, 99% of European long distance trains have air con and they are always nice and clean. There's usually a bar carriage for cold drinks and snacks.

For Paris to keep cool I would go to the Jardins de Luxembourg as the trees keep them a bit cooler than the city.

I get it, I’d be dreading it too. However my DH and DC cope with heat much better than me. If yours are similar don’t flap about it, plan what you can to make things easier for yourself and lower your expectations for the volume of sightseeing you’ll be able to do. Lots of shade and green spaces in Paris.

We did trains around Italy for a month a few years ago and it was fabulous.
As said most trains have aircon. Only 1 didn't and that was a last minute booking but it was ok.
Kids loved it and didn't find it too hot even though it was July. Mich more enjoyable holiday than a week at the pool I my opinion.

Paris was fine. We had a fair bit of time, so actually walked between the two stations. There's plenty of shade so it was a fairly pleasant walk.

We are now installed in an air conditioned TGV, speeding south. TBF though, we are going to a sleepy French seaside town in a less fashionable part of the South, not Rome.

Home bargains have an excellent dupe for 99p

There are quite a lot of cheaper ones. Amazon are knocking out six for a tenner.

@Ginmonkeyagain that's good to know. Thanks 👍 I'm travelling this afternoon 😮

@Ginmonkeyagain shoot! We didn't pack any Woolies, jumpers, nothing!

@Frauhubert 😮that doesn't sound good. But, thanks for the heads-up.

@Ginmonkeyagain have a fantastic trip. South of France is on my list too. Just need to start saving up for it first!

You have air conditioning at the hotel? I have a similar condition, similar age and it was a similar temperature last year, and most years we have been. I did struggle. I tend to choose the lakes and mountains now.

I live in Florence and the heat is intense today...just try & stay out of the sun 13-18 wear a hat & neck fan

@Fitasafiddle1 we are staying in air b n bs which should have air con. Lakes and mountains sounds wonderful.

Enjoy your trip. Some advice , Gare du Nord is always a bit of a bun fight when you gwt off the Eurostar so plan yoir change over on the train.

TBH given the heat and the fact you are new to all this, I would simply pay for a cab.

London to Rome is a long old train journey, are you staying in Paris tonight? I have done Londin to Turin in a day but we left London early in the morining

@Ginmonkeyagain thanks for that. Yes, we are staying in Paris for two nights. Tomorrow is predicted to be their hottest day so far 😮I'm hoping to use the botabus to get around, since we only have a day to look around. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays unfortunately,, otherwise that would would have been at the top of the list.

Ahh yes I feel for you. Ww are deep down in the south near the Spainish borderand we are not predicted to be as hot as Paris tomorrow.