If ever Paris needed a place to cocoon, it was the last week of June.
The week that the city turned into one giant sauna, when temperatures reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit.
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The week that I got into a fight on a bus with a group of Parisians who didn’t understand that windows, in fact, need to be kept closed in order for the air conditioning to work. (I lost).
The week that I took myself to the cinema — one of the few places offering any real reprieve — only to be told the air conditioning was broken because it “couldn’t handle such unprecedented temperatures.”
And then, walking around in a state of heat-induced delirium, I saw it. Or was it some sort of mirage?
The Pont Neuf, one of the city’s most elegant bridges, perched above the Seine, had been transformed into a giant mountainous cave. Layers of fabric depicting rocky terrain were inflated over the bridge.
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People were invited to walk through, part of an installation imagined by the French artist JR. Was this the respite I didn’t know I needed?
Sadly, not even a cave could shield me from this heat. Rectangular fans deployed across its dark interior walls simply blew around hot air, evoking the feeling of a hammam steam room.
But it was magical — the cavern of Paris. And for a moment, I forgot about all the sweat dripping down my face.
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