The French Summer of Living Dangerously

Not all French summers are created equal.

This new “Lettre de France” highlights the summer of 2026, brings a French perspective (and some context) to the beloved ritual of the French summer vacation, introduces the new National A-Team and shows why it can be ok to overtip in France.

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Merci beaucoup.

Bonjour, c’est Véro

August has arrived. I am writing this new edition of “Lettres de France” from my couch somewhere in the Loire Valley as a giant fan - my new favorite sidekick - blows tepid air on my face. Without it I may not have survived the last couple of months.

This is August in France. It means la transhumance has started for many - I am referring to people, not livestock.

Fact: “Les Grandes Vacances” have been sacred since the summer of 1936 when a left-wing coalition (“le Front Populaire”) helped advance worker’s rights by introducing ground-breaking benefits including “les congés payés” a 2-week paid vacation.

Ninety years later all French salaried workers are entitled to 5 weeks of PTO (Public Holidays are extra.)

It wasn’t easy to get there. It still isn’t in 2026 but when things go south, there’s always social protest and yes, those inconvenient strikes (because some things in life are worth fighting for.)

Fact: Unlike what French TV news and well-heeled content creators claim (or share) not everyone in France can afford to travel to exotic locales. Each year about 40% of the French stay home (that’s over 19 million people including about 5 million children.) In less privileged social classes, the rate is higher. Enter les vacances au balcon. The staycation can be dictated by a variety of circumstances, not all glamorous, including financial insecurity.

Fact: In August France falls off the grid. Aux abonnés absents. Millions of people head to their favorite vacation spot for at least a couple of weeks. Stores shut down (including essential businesses like local boulangeries, pharmacies and restaurants.) Life slows down. Business deals come to a screeching halt.

Fact: Close to 70% of French people who take a summer vacation stay in France at least part of the time. — Why wouldn’t they? There’s something for everyone in the world’s most popular tourist destination.

Fact: Urbanites - including Parisians - abandon their city to tourists in August. Delivery workers finally find places to park without breaking the rules. In the 21st century fewer locals mean fewer bikes running through red lights. Alleluia!

Fact: Once you’ve identified businesses open in August - and friends who are still in town - what a special time to be in the once crowded city! Tourists will be tourists and congregate in the same areas. They are easy to avoid even in Paris. Better yet: Locals are more relaxed, do small talk and smile on the streets (si, si!) — What’s not to like?

Fact: At some point les Juilletistes (those leaving in July) cross paths on congested roads with les Aoûtiens (those taking off in August.)

Fact: Le Français moyen (the average French person) remains “un aoûtien.” C’est comme ça. It is what it is.

Fact: The most clever salaried workers take their summer time off in July. By the time they return to the office tanned and relaxed they will enjoy a slow work environment, leisurely lunches and coffee breaks through August (because no one likes to work in August.) Take my word for it. I did this for years and loved my French summers at the office and beyond.

Sometimes things don’t go as planned.

Tale the summer of 2026. It’s been eventful so far.

How many rounds of heatwave has it been since that last tour I led in the spring? Four, five? I stopped counting.

At one point they said France was hotter than Dubai. C’est fort possible. In June new records were set. A small town in the Indre southeast of Tours, where I live, recorded temps of 45.2 °C (113.3F.) Du jamais vu. A first.

The excruciating heat and its doppelgänger la sécheresse (drought) have made for a very challenging summer for all.

Farmers are struggling to feed their livestock, digging into hay supplies too early. Rivers like our mighty Loire are drying up, a dismal sight with far-reaching consequences on plant and animal life. Water restrictions are widespread.

There was a lot of talk about A/C in France and in the rest of Europe in June.

France, for a variety of reasons that have been discussed at length including a blend of cultural push-back, environmental and aesthetics concerns, hasn’t traditionally done A/C (and hasn’t needed to either.) To be fair, things are changing fast especially in the south where A/C systems aren’t a rare sight anymore.

Not fast enough according to some.

France could have done without self-appointed cultural experts venting frustration on social media. Among some tourists and content creators, whining and public tantrums were de rigueur, the Enlightened referring to the French as “backward” and “stupid.”

Public drama may be good for their engagement rate, it didn’t help their cause.

Praise Social Medial Gods for the “block” function! - Click. — “Bonjour. And in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night.”

Les petits chéris finally cooled off, literally (entrepreneurial businesses started offering portable A/C unit rentals) and figuratively — or flew home.

Fact: The French are in the process of adapting to the new normal. They realize their lives (and summertime) will never be the same and yes, they are getting A/C units.

Is A/C a vital health necessity or an environmentally detrimental luxury? Like always the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The country remains divided, and the debate rages on.

In the face of global warming “les Huiles” (the higher-ups) will have to think out of the box and make drastic decisions. There’s no time to waste: The heat across Europe caused thousands of excess deaths including in France, an unacceptable tragedy.

A few days ago I chatted with a favorite local restaurant owner on my morning walk. She asked if I wasn’t too hot while exercising: “Oh non. Ça va. On me monte qu’à 30 cet après-midi !,” I replied. (Oh no, temps will only go up to 30C, 86F this afternoon!)

She laughed and added: “Avant, trois jours à 30 degrés, c’était la canicule, vous vous souvenez ?” (Back in the day, three days at 30C were considered a heatwave, remember?)

I remember.

She was tired after running the restaurant for weeks with her small team in the heat. With no vacation in sight, she decided to take an impromptu break (Fact: The need to rest is considered a basic right in French life.) Conveniently the French National Holiday was around the corner. The restaurant owner treated herself and her staff to a very long weekend.

Over the last few weeks wildfires have made the news all over France, Europe and the rest of the world.

Heartbreaking videos of burning forests, evacuated towns (over 220,000 people have had to leave their homes so far, mostly in southern France) hogged news channels for days.

There were invisible victims too who could not speak up, family pets and the wildlife. Organizations like the SPA de Bordeaux et du Sud-Ouest (Humane Society for Bordeaux and Southwestern France) or local associations like Wany-the-Pooh took huge risks to rescue and re-home animals. I’ve been supporting them and the voiceless. Look them up. Anyone can help.

When I saw photos of le Porge, a community in southwestern France destroyed by wildfires in July I immediately thought of the martyred village of Oradour-sur-Glane. — A war zone.

Wildfires are not a new thing here in the summer yet they mostly affect southern France. In 2026 wildfires have spread to other regions, all the way to the outskirts of Paris in the venerable Forêt de Fontainebleau.

This site shares live updates on ongoing fires. Mind-boggling.

Firemen have been mobilized for weeks (over 75% are volunteers in France.) When the fires hit southwestern France and the Gironde area outside Bordeaux, they were outnumbered. Other European countries sent back-up. We were grateful.

Images of exhausted firefighters reminded me of April 15, 2019 when brave battalions (Les Sapeurs Pompiers de Paris, the only corps in France that is an operational unit of the French Army) saved an old cathedral against all odds.

Many wondered: Was France doomed to disappear in an infernal (and unprecedented) triangle of intense heat, persistent droughts and wildfires?

Not so fast.

In the summer of 2026 there were heartwarming stories and images of local populations volunteering their time and resources to help feed and take care of the firemen, cheering them on any chance they got.

On the frontlines there were civilians and local construction compagnies showing up along the roads and taking risks to protect the land.

Then the farmers rolled in, one of the most respected yet embattled professions in France. Here are people who can’t afford to go on vacation. They have land and animals to take care of. They work hard and feed the country yet struggle daily - especially this summer! - and out of desperation, stage well-publicized protests many French support.

These men rushed to help the firemen with their water tanks and tractors, selflessly. Cue in scenes of improvised (yet seamless) collaboration.

In spite of the ongoing human, economic and ecological disaster unfolding in front of French and foreign TV cameras, those displays of solidarity showed a unified country fighting together.

What we all saw: The authorities (who’ve had years to anticipate and prepare for such tragedies) seemed to scramble in the background while brave men and women showed initiative and courage and got the job done out in the field, day and night.

It didn’t escape anyone all this happened far away from Paris, the Historical-Center-of-the-{French}-Universe.

That wasn’t good. In France Paris has always made the big decisions.

Emperor President Macron made a controversial appearance in southwestern France at the peak of the crisis. Local authorities stepped in and requested the farmers to leave. They refused. A case of civil disobedience. Les agriculteurs (farmers) and les pompiers (firemen) continued fighting side by side. — The A-Team if you ask the French.

Less than a year away from the next presidential election it’s clear the stakes have changed. Read this excellent publication by journalist Lindsey Tramuta for more context (Who says Instagram is just for scrolling?)

Many among us understand we can’t afford - the planet can’t afford - to re-elect the same politicians who helped put France in this predicament. Not everyone masters macroeconomics yet we saw this summer how budget cuts impacted the work of firefighters and la sécurité civile (their skilled pilots drive les canadairs, water bombers.) France - the third largest economy in Europe - only owns 12 planes, some over 30 years old. None was in the vicinity of the Bordeaux area when the fires broke out.

Politicians can’t continue to get away with empty promises or (their fall-back plan no matter where they hail from) “beaucoup de récupération,” the exploitation of tragic events for political purposes.

Meanwhile they say the new Spiderman movie, “Brand New Day,” has just set a new record scoring the second biggest opening weekend in the history of cinema.

A successful franchise Spiderman did not disappoint (not to mention air-conditioned movie theaters are even more appealing when scorching temperatures hit.)

“Where have all the good men gone and where are all the Gods?,” the late Bonnie Tyler sang in “Holding out for a Hero” on the soundtrack of the 1984 movie hit “Footloose.”

The French - and I suspect other countries as well - know who their heroes are, referring to the firemen as “les soldats du feu” (those who fight fire.) They’ve known all along but thanks to the media, our heroes - unlike Spiderman - now have real faces.

We will not forget - we should not forget - what they are accomplishing this summer.

As for you who may not be able to vote in France in May 2027 but live here now, there’s something you can do to help: Around the Holidays les pompiers will come knock on your door to sell their traditional calendar and raise money. It may or may not include pictures of sexy firemen or cute kittens. — It doesn’t matter.

I won’t be the only one donating a lot more than usual for my copy this year. For those of you who always feel guilty not tipping in France, here’s your chance to go all out. Overtip. Get crazy!

— and what a great opportunity to practice your French in situ with friendly firemen, n’est-ce-pas?

For now time to go out there and return to your well-deserved summer vacation - if you are an aoûtien bien sûr. I will stay home in the Loire Valley and hold down the fort.

Bonnes vacances et à bientôt.