America is to blame for the heatwave that has caused so much misery in France in the last fortnight. Audrey Pulvar, the Socialist deputy mayor of Paris, took to social media at the weekend, addressing a letter to “dear American journalists” who have been making fun of Paris because the city doesn’t have air conditioning. “This is so rich!” exclaimed Pulvar. “You bear a significant amount of responsibility for global warming and the consequences we, in France, are experiencing. Your cities, which are 90 percent air conditioned, are not unrelated to this.”

It sounds like Madame Pulvar is a little hot and bothered, which isn’t surprising given the furnace that France has become. In Chablis, a little south of where I live in Burgundy, the temperature hit 41.6°C (107°F) on Saturday, a regional record for June. The vines, according to one wine-grower, are “starting to show signs of stress.”

“Installing air conditioning everywhere just means making the damage worse,” declared Jean-Luc Mélenchon

“Installing air conditioning everywhere just means making the damage worse,” declared Jean-Luc Mélenchon

It is not just the vines which are distressed. Across France, from the Cote d’Azur in the south to the Côte d’Opale in the north, the Republic has been roasting for two weeks and the people are suffering.  

The heatwave officially ended on Sunday – the thermometer in my garden has dropped from 104°F to 82°F – but France’s meteorologists are warning it could return on July 6.

On Sunday, France’s Public Health agency........

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