“We couldn’t stand the heat any longer”: these residents who leave the south of France to escape the scorching summers

From the moment they wake up, Christine and William, 60 and 57, look tired. In their house near Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes , the temperature didn't drop below 28 degrees on the night of August 12th. "It's exhausting, you never recover," sighs the fifty-year-old. A few years away from retirement, the couple is planning a move to Brittany, "to find some fresh air" and restful sleep. Like them, many of them are eager to leave the hottest areas of France, as heatwaves have become more frequent in recent years.

For Eric, 68, it was becoming urgent to leave Castelnau-le-Lez, near Montpellier, where he had lived for thirty years...