[FreedomCalls]

There was not even the slightest breeze to relieve the furnace conditions.

I realize that most French don't have air-conditioning, but are they so stupid as to not know what a fan is? Or perhaps the reporter wants it to sound worse than it is.

[lepton]

They wouldn't normally need fans for the same reason they wouldn't normally need AC. I've never lived in Paris, but southern Germany only got to 80 for a couple of days each summer, every other year.

[Melas]

I realize that most French don't have air-conditioning, but are they so stupid as to not know what a fan is? Or perhaps the reporter wants it to sound worse than it is.

It's easy to get caught off guard for atypical weather. Forget France, look at Chicago just a few years back. Elderly Chicagoans were dying in droves in that heat wave.