A Bigger Splash in a Bigger Heat (1)

By Louise Peloquin

A bigger splash

After an unusually early record-breaking heatwave at the end of May, June 15th temperatures started rising past the three-digit mark to top 106 in Paris on the 24th making the City of Lights the hottest spot on the planet. The thermometer started inching down again on June 28th, but the extreme temperatures left disturbances in their wake from disrupting end-of-the-year baccalaureate exams in classrooms turned into saunas to cancelling outdoor music festivals to closing the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower early in the afternoon much to the disappointment of summer tourists.

Newly-elected Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire limited city traffic by instituting alternative driving days for vehicles according to their odd or even license plate numbers. Another decision was lifting a Canal Saint Martin swimming ban in Paris’s 10th arrondissement. (2) Back in May, many coolness seekers had violated the ban by cannon-balling off of bridges into the murky, moss green waters. How can a police officer nab a sweating kid about to make a big splash? Lowell youngsters have similarly jumped into canals in the past, haven’t they?

Temps climbing well into the 100’s in a city whose old Lutetian stone, brick and granite buildings are largely lacking AC, persuaded Mayor Grégoire, from his air-conditioned Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) office, to empathize with Parisians, and turn the Canal Saint Matin into a gratuit swimming pool. He also decided to leave all of the usually-locked-at-dusk city parks open 24/7 to allow suffocating flat-dwellers to escape stagnant air, picnic in the dark and, if so inclined, dance in the moonlight.

On June 16, the mayor tweeted:

You asked for it; we did it!
As of tomorrow, in anticipation of the extreme heat, swimming in the Canal Saint Martin will be authorized!
Take advantage of it from 4 to 8 PM!

— Emmanuel Grégoire (@egregoire)

With photographer lagadelle’s permission, here is a September 2017 shot of le Canal.

Canal Saint Martin

    Le Canal will be a Paris swimming venue in early July, as it has been since the 2024 Olympics, covered here with 7 reports. (3) “Using le Canal as a tool for refreshment… along with other measures, like offering discount tickets to air-conditioned cinemas, is a way for the city to combat global warming,” declared one city official. Political opponents did not necessarily agree with the statement.

Canal shot by photographer Steffi Emmi

The Agence Régionale de Santé (Regional Health Agency) states that water quality testing guarantees meeting sanitary standards in le Canal.

Some people are not so sure about that and had already questioned Seine water cleanliness during the 2024 Olympics as the pieces in footnote 3 reported.

An Instagram video posted on June 21st showed a municipal agent throwing garbage right into le Canal. It went viral. That didn’t prevent hundreds of Parisians from joining millions of microbes in the newly-opened swimming hole.

Swimmers on the bank of le Canal

Now that the two-week heatwave has subsided, what is happening?

Mayor Grégoire has reinstated the Canal ban as of June 27th after a man swimming after dark outside the authorized Canal zone drowned and violent thunder and lightening storms hit Paris. Some city parks were once again closed at dusk. To offset the bans, Paris officials reminded everyone that more than 1,300 drinking water distribution points continue to supply thirsty city dwellers and tourists.

The planned reopening le Canal Saint Martin will depend on meteorological conditions but the official calendar is set from July 5th to September 6th, 2 to 6 PM on Sundays, if water quality allows.

Since 2007, from July to the beginning of September, the City of Paris has set up artificial sandy beaches along the Seine – Paris-Plages (Paris Beaches). All are welcome and entrance is free. Since 2024, three free, supervised, Seine swimming sites will open as they did in 2025. Details are found here.

Here is the map, published in the latest edition of Le magazine des Parisiens, on swimming in the city in 2026.

After covering bigger splashes, let’s take a look at the unprecedented bigger heat endured by Europe from the middle to the end of June.

The UK recorded its hottest day on June 25th when the thermometer hit 98 degrees in southwest England. Germany reached 98.6; Spain 96.8 and Italy 95.

France was the hottest spot because of its location on the continent, situated at the heart of the heat dome. Hot air, trapped under clear, breezeless, blue skies, caused heat to accumulate and immobilized the hot air making it stagnate for several days. Spain is more protected by the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Europe is closer to cooler continental air masses. So in mid-June, it was hotter in Paris than in Madrid or in Rome and meteorologists see another heatwave looming as of July 6th.

What did the French say about the 12-day canicule? (4) “No one was ready for this, neither the schools nor the hospitals, nor anyone.” A cyclist commuter described his daily ride to work: “your skin burns, it really burns.” One network reported that an initial overview of the consequences of the June 2026 canicule showed a considerably higher mortality rate than that of the previous months with approximately 1000 additional deaths occurring mostly in private homes. During the week of June 22nd to 27th alone, 105 people died in Paris of heat-related causes. Fifty-five people drowned between June 15th and 26th, most of them in unauthorized locations like the river Loire whose strong currents and whirlpools quickly subdue even the strongest of swimmers.

Assessing the many consequences of the canicule will take some time. Twenty-three years after the August 2003 heatwave which caused 15,000 causalties, some French people maintain that their country has not begun to seriously deal with changing weather patterns. On June 29th, a meteorologist and historian declared that Paris will undoubtedly be the deadliest city in Europe should the upcoming heatwave hit 120 degrees.

A heat dome is now suffocating parts of the United States including New England. Although America is better-equipped with reliable AC than is Europe, is it ready to face the future?

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 1) Reference in hommage to David Hockney, the British artist who died on June 11, 2026 at the age off 88. A Bigger Splash is a large pop art painting measuring 95.5 by 96 inches, depicting a swimming pool with a large splash of water created by an unseen diver. It was painted in California between April and June 1967, when Hockney was teaching at the University of California, Berkeley.

2) The Canal Saint-Martin is a 2.8 mile canal in Paris, connecting the Canal de l’Ourcq to the Seine.

3) Click on these links for the 3 pieces on swimming during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics:

https://richardhowe.com/2024/07/09/the-last-lap-pariss-summer-olympics/

https://richardhowe.com/2024/07/16/olympic-happy-hour-ahead/

https://richardhowe.com/2024/07/24/go-jump-in-theseine/

4) French word for heatwave. “Can” refers to “dog” (“canine” has the same linguistic root) and to the “dog days” which are said to be from July 3rd to August 11th. Global warming will certainly modify this definition of “dog days.”