To the people who might go "yeah well that's a regular summer in [insert country or region]", I would like to point out the obvious that France (and other European countries curently suffering) is not these countries used to such heat for such mong periods of time.
Yes, it is finally summer, and yes, it's supposed to be hot too here. Except our hot temperatures are still way below that. The average temperatures at that period between 1991-2020 are 15-20°C below what we're experiencing. It's 41°C in Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, when it should be about 25, 42°C in Rennes when it should be 22.
On Tuesday 23rd, France was hotter than 99% of the planet. Only some specific zones in the Sahara, Arabian, and American deserts were hotter.
In the night between Monday and Tuesday, temperatures only came back down to between 21 and 28 degrees. Those are supposed to be the temps at day.
About A/C: it's true, most of the country doesn't have it. Some public transportation, supermarkets, restaurants have it, and some individual houses too. But that's about it. Because we didn't really need it until a few years ago, and it's both hard and expensive to get it installed, especially in older buildings like those in Paris. But also, you've got to understand that if A/C makes your life easier inside, it considerably worsens things outside. The heat generates by A/C would up the termps a few degrees more, and would not fix the issue of going outside.