Emily in France 🇫🇷 3 Ways Locals Cope with the Canicule
It's hot in Paris
Paris is 100 degrees today. We are not equipped for this. Luckily, there are a few ways to find relief.
1. Take advantage of free drinking fountains.
Paris is home to 67 Wallace fountains, named for the Englishman who financed their construction in the 19th century after the destruction of aqueducts during the Paris Commune rendered potable water extremely expensive. These beautiful fountains are usually painted a rich, dark green, though a handful of colorful ones dot the city. Each of them provides clean drinking water from a natural source, which you’ll find indicated on the side of the fountain.
Other fountains, which can be found in Buttes-Chaumont park, on the esplanade at Les Halles, and along the Berges de Seine, even provide free, cold sparkling water… which may be the most Parisian thing to exist.
2. Seek the rarity that is air conditioning.
You're unlikely to find much air conditioning in France, especially if you're renting an AirBnb. But there are a few spots to seek refuge, including Prêt à Manger, métro lines 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, and 14, and Le Lautrec, one of my favorite chocolate shops in the city.
3. Lounge in a café and complain.
The weather is the perfect topic for one of France’s most beloved pastimes: complaining. After all, the art of râler is completely divorced from finding a solution to the problem at hand, and there’s nothing we can do to change the weather.
To engage in this French leisure activity, pull up a chair at a café terrace (preferably one equipped with a mister to keep you cool), order a citron pressé or rosé piscine, and start airing your grievances. You’ll feel like a (sweaty) Parisian in no time.
Bonus: Go to the movies.
Cinemas are yet another air conditioned spot in Paris, and thanks to Lost in Frenchlation’s summer camp, you can take full advantage of these iconic Parisian spaces to discover a special selection of French film favorites, all with English subtitles. Founder Manon has generously offered my subscribers two free tickets to any of the films being shown this summer (though I'll admit I'm particularly excited to share Vingt Dieux, a phenomenal film about a young man dedicating himself to the art of Comté making, which is being screened July 13 and August 10.)
For a chance to win, just like and comment on this post with the film you're most excited to see by July 7! I’ll randomly select a winner and announce it next week.
Cheese of the Week
P’tit Saint-Faron is a triple cream delicacy I recently picked up on a day trip to Meaux. While this city is home to Brie de Meaux, perhaps France’s most famous bloomy-rinded cheese, this newcomer recently earned the Best Cheese in the World designation Lyon’s international cheese festival. P’tit Saint-Faron looks like many of its triple cream cousins like Brillat-Savarin or Délice de Bourgogne, but it’s way cheesier than most members of the category. It’s got a lovely briny salinity and some truly deep raw mushroom notes that play perfectly with its 75% fat content, giving it a luxurious, buttery richness that lasts and lasts and lasts.
To discover more of my favorite cheeses, be sure to follow me on Instagram @emily_in_france, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and tune into the Terroir Podcast, where Caroline Conner and I delve into France's cheese, wine, and more one region at a time.
What I’m Eating
It’s rare that I come across the sort of café I once assumed I’d find on every street corner in Paris, with down-home comfort food served by a married couple exuding equal parts chic, charm, and scorn. But that’s exactly what’s on offer at Bar Fleuri, an understated café in Belleville that’s become known for its cheap-as-chips roast chicken and fries, at just 6.86 per portion. More on the blog.
Where I’m Going
To the Jura, to discover the wonderful world of Comté!
What I’m Doing
TERRE/MER is a ceramics and culinary retreat I co-host in the Mediterranean seaside town of la Ciotat. This long weekend is governed by creativity and terroir, encompassing a 10-hour ceramics workshop, three locally-sourced meals a day (prepared with love by yours truly), hands-on cooking workshops, a cheese tasting (bien sûr), and more.
We'll be welcoming our next small group September 4-7. Book your spot now!
Dig deep into French cheese and wine pairings with my guided tasting in a historic underground aging cellar October 14 2025, 5:30pm in collaboration with WICE. For just 45-euros, you’ll gain access to a five-cheese tasting paired with two French wines and guided by yours truly. Book your spot here!
What I'm Writing
1. These days, everyone is on the lookout for the next sorcerer’s stone — a simple answer that stops aging in its tracks and enables us to live longer, healthier lives. From intermittent fasting to cold water plunges, there’s been a fair amount of bandwagoning in wellness circles regarding these “healthy” practices. We talked with experts to see if these five longevity trends hold water. For Organic Authority.
2. From the archives: Stop buying French cheeses in the U.S. – try these instead. For InsideHook.
3. From the archives: There’s perhaps nothing so Parisian as the theatrical tableside filleting of a sole meunière, and summer in the Sud wouldn’t be complete without a salade niçoise generously topped with tuna glistening in oil. In the Loire Valley, freshwater fish like barbel and catfish are far more common than saltwater specimens – though, unfortunately, they have far from the same illustrious reputation. This restaurant is trying to change that. For Frenchly.
FAQs
With the goal of bringing you the content you crave, I'm soliciting your help. What questions can I answer for you? Drop them into the newsletter chat, and I’ll answer as many as I can!
What I'm Reading
1. I started reading Marie-Pierre Rey’s Le Premier des Chefs: L’exceptionnel destin d’Antonin Carême while researching Antonin Carême for a piece I was writing about the new show about his life. And while Carême was not a spy – nor a Lothario – he was a remarkably modern, creative thinker and innovative pastry chef who was at once a product of and ahead of his time. This biography busts myths and gets at the core truth of this larger-than-life creative whose perfectionism and creativity made his some of the most enduring impacts on French pastry arts and the culinary world at large.
2. Karen Karbo’s inventory of things she loves about France, loves less about France, and still misses about America, six years in. In Yeah, No, Not Happening.
3. This story on the hidden value of unread books. In Farnam Street.
A bientôt !