It's 22C outdoors this morning, and 27ºC in the house. That means it's 5 degrees Celsius (centigrade) — about 10 degrees Fahrenheit — warmer in the house than outside. That's why I have all the doors and windows wide open at 5:30 a.m. And we've got it good compared to the southern part of the country. Here's a map for today showing high temperature zones and ranges. Météo France predicts 34ºC or 35ºC for Saint-Aignan today.
See the temperature conversion table on the sidebar on the right to get an idea how Celsius and Fahrenheit compare.
Here's another view of the situation. The dark red départements (counties) will experience dangerously intense heat. The orange ones will experience extreme heat. The yellow ones will experience unusually high temperatures. The green ones will have normal temperatures for the season (in the 80s F.) Provence is about 400 miles south of Paris. Saint-Aignan is about 150 miles SW of Paris.
Yesterday afternoon we managed to keep it comfortable in the house by closing the shutters on the west side of the house, including the black-out shades on the skylight windows up in the loft. I slept well from about 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. with two big fans running to bring in cooler air. Over the last two hours The temperature on the main level of the house has dropped by a few degrees with all the windows and doors open.
Accuweather says the afternoon highs will fall below 30ºC on Friday and will be down close to 20 early next week.
Vivement vendredi !
Vivement vendredi !
It’s crazy hot here in the Diois but, fortunately, we’ve not hit 40c here in Châtillon. We’re looking forward to the weekend temp drop, and some rain would be wonderful. Stay cool.
ReplyDeleteWe're expecting 36 or so here today. So far so good. The mornings are pleasant, but the afternoons less so.
DeleteWhen I was in France with that kind of weather, as I said many times, I was fortunate and blessed to live in an apartment with very thick outside stone walls. The temperature inside was almost constant and really bearable without AC or fans. In 1947, at the end of July (the last really bad canicule I was there) the temperature went up to 40*C +. When I was going outside it felt like entering a furnace! Since, I had experienced really bad heat (like 120*F) in the desert of Southern California. I hate cold, ice an snow!
ReplyDeleteNice that the stone walls cooled things down that much! Now there are ductless A/Cs so you could attach one to the interior wall and it would cool things down.
DeleteThe other thing about CHM's Paris apartment is that it's on the ground floor of a six-story building and on a courtyard that is deep and not very spacious. I wonder how often the sun shines down to the ground in that courtyard. Cool or cold air would settle toward the bottom of the courtyard, which is more of an air shaft than anything else. The apartment is pleasant because it has south- or southeast-facing windows that open onto a grassy schoolyard with big trees for shade.
DeleteDiogenes, I've thought about those wall-mounted AC units. The first thing I have to say about them, from my experience of them in Paris hotel rooms, is that they don't really cool a place down very much. The other is that our house here is an open-plan structure. The guest bedroom downstairs has a door on it, as do the WC and the bathroom. Up in the loft, the only door is on the WC. That means we would have a hard time cooling all that space. My mother's house in coastal N.C. had a heat pump for forced-air cooling and heating. That was effective. The apartment she moved into when you sold the house in 2005 had the same kind of heating and cooling system, and it was effective too. I probably should look into that for our house. But as I've said, I don't really want to live in air-conditioned quarters. If this climate gets worse, though... and as I get older... well, we'll see.
DeleteHoly cow, that's hot!
ReplyDeleteI missed getting to the blogs yesterday, and just saw that great looking couscous and veggies salad. It looks great for a summer day!
We actually didn't use couscous grain for the salad. We used millet, which you cook like rice but which has a nice, slightly crunchy texture. Bulgar would also be good in the salad.
DeleteGlad you are managing OK. Our friend Linda is in Provence for several weeks- yikes!
ReplyDeleteI hope Linda is staying in places with AC. Since she lives in Florida, she's used to hot weather.
Delete