Heatwave - dreading holiday in Paris next week

[HotGrapefruit]

DH and I are booked to go to Paris next week. The average highs in June are around 23 degrees, which is about the max I can handle. But the forecast is up to 40 every day. This wasn't what we were expecting at all.

I'm dreading it. The metro doesn't have aircon and neither do any of the places I've booked to eat (I've now cancelled them all). We had an assortment of walking routes planned, but none are going to be realistic.

We've spent a fortune on a lovely hotel room and Eurostar travel, so I can't bear to cancel the whole thing.

Does anyone have advice or reassurance or am I just going to absolutely hate it?!

@HotGrapefruit fair enough, I think you may have to slow your pace a little and hopefully it will be bearable for you. Have you seen those neck fans? They are good.

What really saved us though, was small long thin towels, frequently dampened with water, around our necks. Looks a bit shit (not very Parisienne chic) but survival comes first! And a hotel with air con. Essential.

Do these really work? The review look good but I can't imagine it!

X posted about the damn neck fans lol. Sorry. They really are good!

Paris has 16 lines, plus the RER!

I assumed this referred to the restaurants?

OP, we were in France a couple of weeks ago - temperature up to 37 - but it was OK to sit outside a restaurant: they all have parasols and shade, and you don’t have to do anything! French churches are always freezing, and museums and galleries are usually good for a visit on a hot day. I really think you’re getting yourself unnecessarily worried about this: if you’ve got A/C in your hotel, you’ll be fine - don’t do too much, and enjoy being there!

I have a health condition where the slightest bit of exertion makes me sweat profusely and I cannot balance my temperature so I am a wet through mess daily, especially if I'm out and about walking around even in winter. There's no medicine for it that has worked for me except one that I'm now immune to sadly.

Despite this, I went away with extended family a couple of years ago to Paris when it was 35 to 42 for a week. It was manageable. Stop for drinks often, take water with you. Use cool towels and fans including neck ones that recharge and a fold up one for your room. Take bed bath wipes with you to freshen up if need be. (you can get them in packs of 10 or so). You just need to be organised, not cancel your life.

Go up the eifle tower is you can because one side had cool air blowing round it even when the other was still and stifling. It was wonderful.

I would get up and out early, very early. Nap in afternoon. Stay up and eat late. I'm like you though, I would hate virtually every second of it. I would seriously consider cancelling if I could get a reasonable proportion refunded- and go next spring.

For anyone who suffers from the heat at night, I bought a "Cooling Blanket" from Amazon 2 years ago. It is brilliant. I don't know how it works but it does.
If you want to search its called "Choshome Cooling Blanket". I don't know how to do a link from Amazon.

I’ll see you there!
Just change the focus of your trip, get up earlier, eat in places with a shady garden, go to exhibitions in the afternoon, sit in the park.

Those cooling towels do work, they stay 5degrees until they need reactivated again with some water and shaken.
Can you get a train to somewhere with a breeze and a pool/the sea? A 40 degree city is my idea of sheer hell.

I'll go.

Ah, I thought you were referring to the metro lines, some of which have air con.

OP, the thing about Paris is that it starts cool, and heats up by lunchtime. This morning at 8am it was 18C; it will almost double later in the day. So plan to get stuff done early; walks, parks etc. Notre Dame opens at 9am and will be lovely and cool. Research what opens early and tick those off.

Escape the heat at lunchtime in a restaurant, or have a siesta, then go out later on. Eat later in the evening.

Lol! We had Versailles booked but that looked genuinely horrible so I've cancelled that too...

Not really any easy sea-side trips nearby and I suspect it would be hotter attempting to get there..

Another for paper fans, they actually weirdly calm me too!!

Try the Catacombs. Might be booked out already, but they offer discounted same-day last minute tickets. Fascinating, and another great thing to do in the cool.

Trekking through any city in unbearable heat is miserable @HotGrapefruit even one as beautiful as Paris.

A couple of suggestion; restaurants with air-con & travel on the Seine (get the 48hr pass)

Final contribution: the Musée Quai Branly is just along from the Tour Eiffel. You enter via gardens (these are free) which are wonderfully shady and also offer money shot views/pics of the Tour itself. The cafe restaurant in the garden grounds is air conditioned (do not recommend sitting outside) and is very pleasant. The Musée itself is fabulous.

Also consider the Musée Rodin; large, shaded gardens.

If you're in a nice hotel with air conditioning you should be fine. A lot of restaurants have air con and/or outdoor shaded seating. Paris has a great cafe culture so try local places in the 14e and 15e arrondissements. I would avoid the more touristy areas and head for the lesser known museums, churches and places of interest. Places to try:

• The Pantheon
• tour/tower Montparnasse instead of the Eiffel Tower. It's cheaper, faster, inside and likely air con but also has better views than the tour Eiffel because you can't see the tour Montparnasse itself.
• If you're interested in medicine/healthcare, there is a museum of the history of medicine in the medical school.
• Train trip to Fontainebleau to see the chateau and forest (shade) and likely to be a bit less hot outside the city. Likely to be less busy than Versailles but much better (I think so anyway!)
• Also château de Chantilly
• Parc Montsouris - gorgeous park in the 14e arrondissement near RER B Cite Universitaire
• I wouldn't recommend the jardin de Luxembourg as not much shade or grass.
• Normally, I'd say check out one of the sheltered farmers markets but probably best not on this occasion!

I live in Paris.
Currently pregnant with morning sickness plus a toddler and dog. Our apartment doesn't have any air con. It's true the heat is unbearable but honestly I manage the heatwaves by getting out early in the mornings (its lovely until close to 11), eating lunch, having a siesta and chilling inside and then emerging around dinner time. Fans (even the little ones you can buy on amazon), cold showers and iced drinks really help. Its just the afternoons that are very hard so work around it if you can in your itinerary

It was 41°C here yesterday, in our part of France.

The way i cope is:
Do stuff early, lunch then a couple of hours downtime feet up and snooze if you can.
Freshen up before going out later afternoon
Take cold drinks wherever you go
Have a wet towel or scarf for cooling down
Always walk in the shade and choosing the tree lined streets cuts the temp dramatically
Fans, and water sprays which you spray towards the fan so it fans the water back onto you
At night, water spray the bedding and keep the sprayer next to the bed to cool yourself when you wake up early sweating your bits off.
Fan on you all night.
Shower often
Drink lots
Don't try and do too much

If your hotel has air con you are halfway there.

That map of restaurants with air con is incredible! Thank you!

Musee Rodin is gorgeous. But also - so many art galleries. We last went to Paris in a heatwave and we spent ages in Musee d’orsay (which is my favorite in Paris anyway). Lovely and cool. You could also go to Musee de L’orangerie as well. Don’t give up - just adjust your plans!

I really sympathise. You've had a tonne of good advice already on the thread and I haven't read through everything in detail (except to steal museum ideas).

Like you I'm very heat intolerant and I travel by Eurostar at great personal expense to me in order to be more sustainable. I would not cancel but I would be very concerned. We underrate the risk of extreme heat in Europe.

I hate to tell you but the Eurostar terminal in Gare du Nord is abysmal in heat (it's unacceptablybad anyway in my view due to chaotic organization and not enough space. ) There is air-conditioning in the waiting area but it's underpowered. Go as far as possible into the waiting area as the far end is better cooled and has fewer people. Many people don't even realize there is space beyond the Paul cafe and just cluster there). The queue before security and the security hall itself are an endurance test in hot weather / always. St Pancras is better but not much better. This gives me the rage as it's no way to encourage people onto greener forms of transport, but zen-like acceptance is the best way to get through it.

Carry an umbrella and do not be ashamed to put it up as a sunshade whenever it's needed (even inside the station if your standing somewhere unshaded) If you need to cool down, run your sunhat under a tap or tip water on your clothes. Carry water with you obviously.

I’m Italian thus used to heat but Paris and London at 40 is a lot as they’re not really set up for heat the way med countries are.