As France sweltered through its hottest day on record, with temperatures nudging 40C, the country’s long-standing aversion to air conditioning has been thrown into crisis – while dozens of Eurostar passengers spent eight hours stranded in the heat without power or ventilation.
Tuesday marked the highest temperature ever recorded in France, prompting a rush to buy portable air-conditioning units. But the debate over la clim – climatisation – has sharply divided the political spectrum. Marine Le Pen, on the populist right, has urged a mass subsidised roll-out. On the environmentalist left, Marine Tondelier, head of the Ecologists party, broke a taboo this week by conceding that some air-con is now unavoidable. “There are places where we just can’t do without it now,” she said, distancing herself from what she called “anti-clim dogma”.
“France's hottest day on record ignites air-conditioning debate as Eurostar passengers suffer eight-hour heatwave ordeal without power.”
Only 25% of French homes have an air-con unit, compared with 50% in Spain and Italy, and 90% in the US and Japan. Thousands of schools have shut, and hospitals – rarely equipped – have seen staff complain of intolerable conditions. The Green movement has long regarded air-conditioning as the worst of solutions: it aggravates climate change by requiring electricity (often from fossil fuels), leaks refrigerant greenhouse gases, and creates an urban heating effect that studies suggest can raise city temperatures by two or three degrees.
But the heatwave had more immediate consequences. On Wednesday, June 24, Eurostar train 9375/9475 left Gare du Nord in Paris bound for Brussels and Amsterdam. Just after 7.30pm, a technical incident caused by “exceptional heatwave conditions” forced the driver to stop near Fresnoy-le-Luat (Oise). Passengers were left without electricity or air conditioning. Some had to wait on the tracks.
One passenger described the situation as “hell”. Social media posts pleaded: “Eurostar, our train from Paris to Brussels is stopped on the tracks, what the hell is going on?” Police, firefighters and civil protection crews arrived, assisting the elderly and handing out water. A replacement train finally arrived at 12.30am the following day, taking passengers to Brussels – nearly five hours after the original 7.47pm arrival time. Others continued to Amsterdam by bus or taxi.
Eurostar’s chief operating officer, Amar Chaabi, apologised: “We fully understand what our passengers experienced last night and offer them our sincerest apologies... The safety of our customers guided every decision... We will analyse this incident in detail to learn all the lessons and continue to improve our customer service.”
As record temperatures become more common, the question of whether France can continue to resist air conditioning – even in schools and hospitals – is no longer theoretical. “There are places where we just can’t do without it now,” Tondelier said. But for the passengers stranded on the Eurostar, the answer came too late.