'Canicules' and 'Climes'

July 21, 2015

     The word in French for "heat wave" is canicule.  There are different temperature ranges for canicules, depending on the region of France.  In the Midi, that range is highest, but even for the South of France, the heat over the course of last week has been excessive: it was 98.6F in Caunes today, with temperatures for the rest of the week to be only slightly lower.

     Last year the weather was changeable, with days of clouds and even rain.  The year before, too, it was never this hot.  Everyone feels the heat, particularly as most people do not have air conditioning. My friend Chantal told me she had trouble sleeping last night.  She awoke at 2:00 a.m. and took a cold shower, but it was not much help.  Beau lies around all day, reviving in the evening.

     As for me, I have been entertaining a guest from Switzerland, where the temperatures have also been higher than normal, although nothing like this. For the last few days I have taken to sleeping in the afternoon after lunch, a heavy, sodden sleep, notwithstanding the fan in my room and the air conditioning in the salon d'hiver.   The heat in the bedroom on the top floor is even greater, although my friend insists that with the large fan I've provided it's quite comfortable.  --He's just being gracious.

     Chantal told me that when she was a girl in Marseille, at night, she and her sisters would sleep on the terraces of their house --rather like New Yorkers who slept on their fire escapes in heat waves before air conditioning was widely available.

      France has a love-hate relationship with les climes,  as air conditioning units are known.  "They create sinus problems that never existed" Chantal tells me.  On the other hand, everyone remembers that during the heat wave in 2003, 14,802 people, mostly elderly, died , as a result of dehydration.  Which is why, today, French television runs adds urging everyone to drink lots of water, and the news carries stories featuring medical personnel repeating the same message and feeding the elderly water by the container.

     As for me, I am awfully glad that in early June I installed des inverters,  heat pumps providing alternately, air conditioning and heat.  Without them, I would have been prostrate from the heat, which is not to say I am bouncing with energy with them.  I have, however, concluded I am going to install another inverter in the top floor bedroom.  It will be an act of mercy for my guests.  Unfortunately for my present guest, the installation will not take place until September.