French and Riviera News Thursday 24th August 2023

News

Heat wave – New record high temperatures have been broken in France with highs of 42.4 degrees in Toulouse, 43.2 degrees in Carcassone and Menton recorded a new national record for minimum temperatures in mainland France overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday with 30.4 degrees.

Another 62 departments are on an orange weather alert. 37 for the heat wave and 25 for storms. France will continue to suffer today Thursday 24th August, with nineteen other departments being kept on a red heatwave alert they include Ardèche, the Drôme, the Lot-et-Garonne, Tarn and the Vaucluse. Météo France has confirmed that across France this is the first time that such intense heat has been observed so late in the summer.

On Wednesday France’s Prime Miniter Elisabeth Borne declared that there was no overcrowding in French hospitals despite the current situation.

Free helpline number for the heatwave tells caller to “go to the beach” -Meanwhile, some rather unusual advice has been given by the heatwave toll-free number, activated by the French government on August 18th, after local media Nice Matin decided to test the service and called asking for “advice on how to survive the heat wave” they were told to go to the beach. Rather surprised by the advice and explaining that “the beaches were at the moment very busy and not maybe the best place to cool down” the paper reports being berated by the person on the end of the line saying “You don’t realise what a