Paris dream turns to nightmare as rooftop dwellers bake in historic heatwave
A historic heatwave in Paris is making life dangerous for residents of attic apartments under zinc roofs, with studies showing quadrupled risk of death, while regulations to protect the city's iconic rooftops hinder adaptation.
Before the heat struck, Amelie Kenney could boast a tiny but cheap top-floor apartment in Paris with an enviable view of the city's iconic gray roofs and even the Sacré-Cœur basilica. But with a historic heatwave making attic apartments potentially hazardous to health, the 23-year-old recent graduate isn't feeling fortunate. "It's been the worst week that we've had in this apartment," she said. "It's just baking in the whole afternoon and it's impossible to get a respite."
About three-quarters of Paris rooftops are covered with zinc sheets, producing the city's famous gray vistas recognized by UNESCO as cultural heritage. But zinc absorbs and conducts heat, turning top-floor apartments into ovens. A study of the deadly 2003 heatwave, which caused 15,000 deaths, found that living in a Paris attic directly under the roof increased the risk of death by more than fourfold. A 2023 study in The Lancet Planetary Health ranked Paris as having the highest risk of heat-related deaths among 30 European capitals.
Kenney and her partner Francesca Pilia, both 23, live in a sixth-floor walk-up. Their one window, protruding from the zinc roof, faces west and receives direct sun from midday to dusk. They pay 735 euros ($835) rent per month. "It was the cheapest place to be," Kenney said. "But now I think if I could spend extra money to be somewhere else, I would."
Housing campaigner Maider Olivier of the Foundation for Housing for the Disadvantaged noted that zoning regulations to preserve Paris's character hinder adaptation to extreme heat. "There are people who are unable to insulate their roofs or install shutters because of regulations to protect the rooftops," she said. "These regulations do not protect the people who live beneath those rooftops."
Kenney, from Australia, and Italian-born Pilia are no strangers to heat, but temperatures in Paris nudging past 40°C (104°F) during the day and 25°C (77°F) at night have been grueling. They rely on a small fan, cold showers, and wet rags, but struggle with the dilemma of whether to keep the window open. "I'll wake up and decide it's too hot, I have to open the window. An hour later, I wake up and say it's too loud, I have to close it," Kenney said. "It's a very Kafkaesque cycle."
