I have always loved a life lived with the seasons, but with temperatures intensifying we have to have a bit of a back up toolkit for those record breaking days. My go-to (which you’ll definitely find a lot of Brits doing), is a cold foot bath, or running cold water over your wrists if you don’t have time to fill a bath or bucket. Because our blood vessels are so close to the surface on your wrists, and there’s a high density of veins in your feet it’s a brilliant way to transfer heat out of your body.
And if you don’t want to run cold water - because you’re worried about water usage, you can take a jar of anything out of the fridge and hold it between your wrists. A jar of jam, or pickles or a can of a drink will work just as well as running water!
I am loving all of the essays on A/C (or lack thereof) in Paris this week! Your tips are spot on. One of the most important things is creating a "courant d'air" (cross-breeze) in the morning and at night by opening up as many windows as you can - just watch out for any slamming doors :)
“Ugly door stops” work as well. If you have a large can of beans it also works!! I have a 1kg can of white beans that I’ll probably never use because it keeps the back door form slamming.
I’ve lived in France many years longer than you have and have learned to live as you do. Installing or living with air conditioning just seems ridiculous. I grew up in Florida where everything was air conditioned…. And we had the sniffles constantly. Here we close the shutters and turn the fan to low. If need be, we take a cold shower. Or run to the chilly grocery store. Granted, there are days i desperately turn the car’s AC to high when on normal days i prefer the windows open. Our meals are lighter and colder. My problem is that I own a hotel, and while most (most, not all) of our European guests understand and are used to it - and experience their stay in a kind of jolly bonhommie… our American clients, used to AC, are less than thrilled. Luckily we are in a 15th century stone building that helps keep in the cool…if one keeps the shutters closed.
Thanks for reading and for sharing Jamie! It’s really interesting to hear your perspective of owning a hotel too and seeing how your different clients experience the heat
I lived most of my life without a/c. Did all the things you list. In a very similar climate where really hot used to happen for two weeks in August. However, I am now disabled and chronically ill (and not 20). A/c is now part of my survival. Yes, I know the apocalypse is going to get me early. I have asthma that is triggered by humidity. I am heat intolerant and keep the apartment at around 70F all year round. It has nothing to do with culture or not knowing how to live with heat. The older we get, the less heat tolerant we get. At the same time as everything is getting hotter. Hence the many deaths among the elderly in extreme heat waves.
I’m sure you aren’t speaking to people like me, but we still need to be part of the conversation.
Because strategically placed drapes, open windows, and fans don’t cut it anymore.
Even moving within the United States my relationship to the seasons and weather has changed. I lived in Indianapolis for most of my life where, similar to you, AC was everywhere to keep my comfortable. I moved into my Boston apartment in July and the first thing I do is search for the thermostat and when I couldn't find it, called my broker and asked where it is. He informed me that I would need to buy a window unit, but I was in such shocker that it felt like he was speaking a foreign language to me. In Boston, I no longer have a car, so I'm out in the elements more. During winters, I joke that I go into hibernation. You will not see me outside of work.
I loved the tips for how to manage the summer heat, because I know Boston will eventually have its own heat waves this summer. And I never knew that furniture and floors trap heat and keeping the windows closed after a certain point is actually better.
I lived in Boston for over 20 years and I never had AC. But I also spent my days in a cool office. I now live about 35 miles west and we don’t get the cooling ocean breezes. But we have a couple free standing ACs that we move around when needed.
This is so interesting. I remember visiting family in Greece and having to adapt to the summer heat without AC. The windows snd doors were open. Everything was tile so floors stayed cooler. I grew up with only AC window units and somehow you just adapt. No blankets, sticking to cool foods and beverages, and using portable fans.
Thanks Katerina, I really appreciate hearing your thoughts and memories from Greece. The tile floors around the Mediterranean are brilliant for the heat!
I enjoyed your tips for living without air conditioning. I'm on the other side of 60 and have never lived in a house with A/C. While most of my life has been spent in the mild Pacific NW of the USA, mild-weathered England and mild-weathered Germany, I also lived in hot and muggy Japan for 12 years. And that's where I learned most of the tips you gave. I prefer it this way. I'm back in the Seattle area and it now gets genuinely hot for longer than it used to. I sleep outside when the house is too warm.
Thanks for sharing Kelli. What a worldly and well traveled life you live! This week I’ve been waking up around 5am on hot days and resting/continuing my sleep outside 🙏
My grandma used to hang up wet bed sheets to evaporation cooling during the midday hours. Alternated with opening the windows during the colder night hours, of course.
Lukewarm showers help me through hot days.
Not to forget breathable fabrics, and lots of drinking.
Sleeping under just a bed sheet without an actual duvet.
Mint containing body wash might confuse your temperature receptors to feel cold.
The Pacific Northwest is mostly unairconditioned and in addition to all those suggestions, my personal tip is to sleep with an ice pack at your toes. It’s lovely.
I grew up in sub-tropical Australia where we didn’t even have fans, let alone AC. Think of Florida, but with mosquito nets. As a college professor my first 15 years were in offices without AC either. How did we manage? We dressed appropriately in loose cotton and linen. We went swimming a lot. Opened up windows as much as possible. Slowed down.
merci for this !! proving how lovely & indeed, helpful it is to learn the details of another culture. if i may add one more pro tip, walking around in summer attire (ok, read ”skivvies”) can be fun! (obvious to some, not to all)
Oh, I am old so I know these things, though I grew up in the southern U.S. Curtains also hold in heat in the winter, when old steam heaters would only come on when it was a few degrees above freezing. Curtains were layered, with a flannel lining between the thick white facing out and the patterned linen facing the room. In summer at night we'd open our windows and turn on the attic fan, which pulled cool air through the house until the morning, when we closed the windows and pulled the curtains closed. I miss those times, despite the more extreme heat where I live now, the city called the "northernmost Caribbean city". May you stay cool through that heat now!
This week I posted a Noted about my life in Provence with no Air Conditioned, living with fans and the old ways my Italian grand mother taught me. I got several angry unexpected messages that show how A/C is still considered the only viable way to cool your interior. There is still a long way to go, even in France, to make people understand and know the options. To save the Planet, your savings and still keeping your home cool enough to live in it ⛱️
I loved your note Ilaria 🫶 it inspired me to go out and get more plants this morning when the temps had cooled enough to safely bike to the garden store.
I have always loved a life lived with the seasons, but with temperatures intensifying we have to have a bit of a back up toolkit for those record breaking days. My go-to (which you’ll definitely find a lot of Brits doing), is a cold foot bath, or running cold water over your wrists if you don’t have time to fill a bath or bucket. Because our blood vessels are so close to the surface on your wrists, and there’s a high density of veins in your feet it’s a brilliant way to transfer heat out of your body.
And if you don’t want to run cold water - because you’re worried about water usage, you can take a jar of anything out of the fridge and hold it between your wrists. A jar of jam, or pickles or a can of a drink will work just as well as running water!
Brilliant 👌🙏
Excellent tips Nat, thank you for this!
I am loving all of the essays on A/C (or lack thereof) in Paris this week! Your tips are spot on. One of the most important things is creating a "courant d'air" (cross-breeze) in the morning and at night by opening up as many windows as you can - just watch out for any slamming doors :)
Thanks Eva! Ah yes "beautiful door stops" has been on my list for years from the slamming doors 😂
“Ugly door stops” work as well. If you have a large can of beans it also works!! I have a 1kg can of white beans that I’ll probably never use because it keeps the back door form slamming.
I’ve lived in France many years longer than you have and have learned to live as you do. Installing or living with air conditioning just seems ridiculous. I grew up in Florida where everything was air conditioned…. And we had the sniffles constantly. Here we close the shutters and turn the fan to low. If need be, we take a cold shower. Or run to the chilly grocery store. Granted, there are days i desperately turn the car’s AC to high when on normal days i prefer the windows open. Our meals are lighter and colder. My problem is that I own a hotel, and while most (most, not all) of our European guests understand and are used to it - and experience their stay in a kind of jolly bonhommie… our American clients, used to AC, are less than thrilled. Luckily we are in a 15th century stone building that helps keep in the cool…if one keeps the shutters closed.
Thanks for reading and for sharing Jamie! It’s really interesting to hear your perspective of owning a hotel too and seeing how your different clients experience the heat
I lived most of my life without a/c. Did all the things you list. In a very similar climate where really hot used to happen for two weeks in August. However, I am now disabled and chronically ill (and not 20). A/c is now part of my survival. Yes, I know the apocalypse is going to get me early. I have asthma that is triggered by humidity. I am heat intolerant and keep the apartment at around 70F all year round. It has nothing to do with culture or not knowing how to live with heat. The older we get, the less heat tolerant we get. At the same time as everything is getting hotter. Hence the many deaths among the elderly in extreme heat waves.
I’m sure you aren’t speaking to people like me, but we still need to be part of the conversation.
Because strategically placed drapes, open windows, and fans don’t cut it anymore.
Thanks for reading and sharing Krista. We all must stay safe however we can — AC is and should certainly be a piece of that 🫶
Frankly, I’d give it up in a heartbeat if the powers that be actually did something about climate change!
Even moving within the United States my relationship to the seasons and weather has changed. I lived in Indianapolis for most of my life where, similar to you, AC was everywhere to keep my comfortable. I moved into my Boston apartment in July and the first thing I do is search for the thermostat and when I couldn't find it, called my broker and asked where it is. He informed me that I would need to buy a window unit, but I was in such shocker that it felt like he was speaking a foreign language to me. In Boston, I no longer have a car, so I'm out in the elements more. During winters, I joke that I go into hibernation. You will not see me outside of work.
I loved the tips for how to manage the summer heat, because I know Boston will eventually have its own heat waves this summer. And I never knew that furniture and floors trap heat and keeping the windows closed after a certain point is actually better.
I lived in Boston for over 20 years and I never had AC. But I also spent my days in a cool office. I now live about 35 miles west and we don’t get the cooling ocean breezes. But we have a couple free standing ACs that we move around when needed.
This is so interesting. I remember visiting family in Greece and having to adapt to the summer heat without AC. The windows snd doors were open. Everything was tile so floors stayed cooler. I grew up with only AC window units and somehow you just adapt. No blankets, sticking to cool foods and beverages, and using portable fans.
Thanks Katerina, I really appreciate hearing your thoughts and memories from Greece. The tile floors around the Mediterranean are brilliant for the heat!
I enjoyed your tips for living without air conditioning. I'm on the other side of 60 and have never lived in a house with A/C. While most of my life has been spent in the mild Pacific NW of the USA, mild-weathered England and mild-weathered Germany, I also lived in hot and muggy Japan for 12 years. And that's where I learned most of the tips you gave. I prefer it this way. I'm back in the Seattle area and it now gets genuinely hot for longer than it used to. I sleep outside when the house is too warm.
Thanks for sharing Kelli. What a worldly and well traveled life you live! This week I’ve been waking up around 5am on hot days and resting/continuing my sleep outside 🙏
My grandma used to hang up wet bed sheets to evaporation cooling during the midday hours. Alternated with opening the windows during the colder night hours, of course.
Lukewarm showers help me through hot days.
Not to forget breathable fabrics, and lots of drinking.
Sleeping under just a bed sheet without an actual duvet.
Mint containing body wash might confuse your temperature receptors to feel cold.
Thanks for sharing! These are great tips. I do use a mint shampoo and hadn’t thought of how this might trick my brain, that’s brilliant.
The Pacific Northwest is mostly unairconditioned and in addition to all those suggestions, my personal tip is to sleep with an ice pack at your toes. It’s lovely.
Tried this last night, thank you! Felt so good 😊😊
I’m glad it worked out!
Just what my grandparents did in the American Midwest before ac was a thing!
Thanks for reading and sharing Jean!
I don’t have AC in Hawaii
I use curtains during the day,fans,open windows at night
I am not a fan of AC
Hi Jeanne, wow a reader from Hawaii, love that Substack brought us to each other. Thanks for sharing 🫶
I grew up in sub-tropical Australia where we didn’t even have fans, let alone AC. Think of Florida, but with mosquito nets. As a college professor my first 15 years were in offices without AC either. How did we manage? We dressed appropriately in loose cotton and linen. We went swimming a lot. Opened up windows as much as possible. Slowed down.
Thank you for sharing Sandy. I love how you mentioned swimming and slowing down.
merci for this !! proving how lovely & indeed, helpful it is to learn the details of another culture. if i may add one more pro tip, walking around in summer attire (ok, read ”skivvies”) can be fun! (obvious to some, not to all)
thanks for reading and sharing Luka! Haaaa not me looking up what skivvies are 😂
Oh, I am old so I know these things, though I grew up in the southern U.S. Curtains also hold in heat in the winter, when old steam heaters would only come on when it was a few degrees above freezing. Curtains were layered, with a flannel lining between the thick white facing out and the patterned linen facing the room. In summer at night we'd open our windows and turn on the attic fan, which pulled cool air through the house until the morning, when we closed the windows and pulled the curtains closed. I miss those times, despite the more extreme heat where I live now, the city called the "northernmost Caribbean city". May you stay cool through that heat now!
This week I posted a Noted about my life in Provence with no Air Conditioned, living with fans and the old ways my Italian grand mother taught me. I got several angry unexpected messages that show how A/C is still considered the only viable way to cool your interior. There is still a long way to go, even in France, to make people understand and know the options. To save the Planet, your savings and still keeping your home cool enough to live in it ⛱️
I loved your note Ilaria 🫶 it inspired me to go out and get more plants this morning when the temps had cooled enough to safely bike to the garden store.
Thank you Shana 🤗🪴
This was so helpful, thank you very much! I'm bracing my Berlin apartment against the heat atm and got a few great tips from this article.
Thanks for reading Katharina, stay safe this summer ! There’s been a lot of brilliant tips shared in comments here too 🫶