Over the weekend, as evening fell on the hilly (and, crucially, shady) Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, one of Paris’s most popular green spaces, the joyfully chaotic Fête de la musique – a summer solstice celebration of music in all its forms – got under way, with competing DJs starting their sets in nearby cafes.

It was stiflingly hot and picnickers were cooling down with water, juice or alcohol-free beer – or at least, they should have been. The Paris authorities banned the consumption of alcohol in public spaces (apart from cafe terraces) during the festival, just one of the measures they can put in place to keep citizens safe once the city reaches vigilance rouge canicule – red heatwave alert.

This heatwave is set to be a long and intense one – as of Tuesday, 54 of the country’s 96 mainland departments were in vigilance rouge – and the national meteorological service Météo France had confirmed France was experiencing the hottest day since records began in 1947. This isn’t even the first heatwave of the year. France’s regimented approach to classifying and assessing heatwave risks and planning for the fallout from elevated temperatures could provide a useful model for other European countries as they brace themselves for more and more extreme heat episodes.

In Paris, people are organising their own ways to keep cool. With the metal shutters pulled down against the blinding sun and the windows closed until at least 10pm, my apartment is bearable, even if it’s not exactly........

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