Like almost every year, Elisabeth and her husband take their motorhome to Greece. “We’ve been here since July 2. From this weekend, we clearly felt the difference in temperature ”, breathes the fifty-year-old. Indeed, the heat wave has been hitting the southern part of Europe since July 15.
A heat dome that raised the thermometer: 48°C on Sunday in Sardinia, while 60°C were recorded on the ground in the Extremadura region, in Spain. Although used to the temperatures of Greece in summer, the couple from Alsace adapted their program: “Visit early in the morning, then we look for a cool and shady place at noon to rest. We start moving again around 5 p.m. when the sun goes down. » A shady spot is highly desirable when parking the motorhome.
At night, the temperature does not drop below 28°C: “It’s hard to sleep,” admits Elisabeth. Currently in the Peloponnese, the French favor the coast and avoid inland as much as possible. “We had planned to go to Athens, in the end, we do not regret”, welcomes the Frenchwoman. Fires are ravaging the forests surrounding the Greek capital, while the city’s iconic site, the Acropolis, is closed to the public during the hottest hours.
Arrived in Seville on Saturday July 15, Flore and Emmanuel took advantage of the capital of Andalusia for a weekend. The young couple set to Spanish time, with the visits and activities to do in the morning, before a long cool break between noon and 5 p.m. “Everything is air-conditioned, from the hotel to the shops. We visited the cathedral where it is very cool too,” they explain.
Being close to the ocean, an option also taken by Marine and her friends, on vacation in Albufeira, in the south of Portugal. “It’s around 30°C with a little breeze, it’s very bearable,” she says. Nevertheless, the UV index, which measures the intensity of the sun’s radiation, is very high: “You have to be very careful in the sun, it hits very hard. »
In Italy too, the heat wave hits. “It’s scorching hot,” Claire says, waiting for her bus in Puglia. Accompanied by a friend, the Parisian takes a tour of La Botte by train, “all air-conditioned”, she specifies. The route was not greatly modified by the heat wave. “We also visit according to the presence or not of public fountains”, Claire nuance. “We also go to churches a lot because it’s cool there,” she adds.
Morning hikes are followed by afternoons on the beach under an umbrella, “the first thing we bought when we arrived”. In the morning when getting back in the car, if possible parked in the shade, several minutes of ventilation are necessary before driving with the window open for a few kilometres, the time for the air conditioning to start up.