Heat Wave

A week-long heat wave is making life difficult.

Our previous apartment on rue de Seine was on the top floor and it had a very big skylight. So, when it was hot, the apartment became unbearably hot. We figured out how to cool the apartment down. We bought a room air conditioner, put the hot air vent out the window and covered the partially open window with a sheet to keep the hot air from coming in. It worked pretty well.

At night, we boosted our chances for cool air by putting a fan in front of the air conditioner and sending the cool air to our bedroom. It wasn't very nice to look at and the room was dark most of the time, but at least we were relatively cool.

On rue Madame, we are on a lower floor and we have more windows. Often all we have to do is open the windows to let the cool breezes through. But, this heat wave, combined with the long days of summer has got us running in circles trying to stay ahead of the heat.

The temperature has been hovering around 90 degrees for almost a week. The sun shines in the front of the apartment in the daytime hours and then it hits the back windows mid-afternoon. Normally, we're happy to see the sun, but now it's the enemy. We're leaving our shutters closed to keep the sun out.

The fans are going all the time, moving the air around seems to make it seem cooler. We've tried to leave the windows open if there's a breeze and close them when it's still.

So far, we've been pretty successful in staying moderately cool.