Paris and air conditioning ?

Small businesses may not be with ac but larger and popular musems aS the Louvre are. Churches stay cool in general since they are made of stone.

It's just not true that most museums are not air conditioned. I found that most are if for no other reason than to preserve the art work. The AC is not US style. I'd call it minimal air conditioning.

Tourist- packed monuments, museums, Versailles, Metro and Buses, large department stores and many cafes and restaurants will not feel cool at all, even if these places are technically air-conditioned.
Get the Paris Museum Pass, so you can visit for an hour or so. You can go back the same day if you were too hot - or go during evening hours.
There isn't anything you can do in the August heat but stay in air-conditioning or in the shade, unfortunately.

The Louvre is air conditioned but some galleries much more so than others. I found myself standing on the AC floor registers in some of the older galleries during the great heat wave of 2003 when we spent 3 days in the Louvre. Newer renovated wings have better AC than older and the basement historic medieval sections are cooler. The Pompidou had AC but it was very weak. Many restaurants and stores have AC but nothing like what we are used to in the US. For example a restaurant might have one weak unit over the door and so it is 85F rather than 100 -- but still hot. I would never choose to travel in Paris in August again but many people enjoy hot vacation weather -- we like October when it is cool but bright and pleasant.

The surprise to me was shopping centers which did not seem to have AC then. The Les Halles Center is new so I would think it would have cooling but I don't know. The center at La Defense was very hot during the heat wave.

"Air conditioning" in France ( Europe) is a newish thing; it is not powerful or cold. In museums it is to preserve the art not the tourists! LOL

Ice is also a bewildering concept, 2 small cubes is about all you will get! ;)

At the first museum you visit, purchase a neat folding hand fan as you'll need it. Visit your museums early in the day, right after opening and go to the popular art first. I agree that in the Louvre the rooms around the Mona Lisa are stifling in the heat whereas the lower floors with less popular exhibits/fewer people are cooler. If you are planning to go to the Marmottan I found it excessively warm, particularly the rooms on the 1st floor (European 1st = US 2nd).

I was there the end of the 3rd week of August 2016, in time for 95 degree heat. What worked best was to get out early, do my walking and gardens starting about 730 and be back to the hotel room by about 3PM, lay low for a few hours, then head out again once the sun started going down. I don't tolerate the heat well at all and am not sure what possessed me to go to Paris then. I've been a number of times so I didn't feel bad about being in the hotel for a few hours in the afternoon.

When you leave in the AM make sure your curtains are closed in your hotel room to keep out some of the heat.

I went last July, as others have mentioned, certain parts of Louvre was air conditioned, there are some that are not (I think to preserve the artifact)? The churches were not air conditioned. Versailles was not air conditioned to my memory. I also went to Musee d'Orsay, I didn't think it was that hot, so maybe they had a bit of A/C there?

We just got back from Paris. Last week a heat wave came through with temperatures in the upper 90s. Needless to say, we were grateful for our AC but it didn't cool nearly as well as the ones in the US. Just took the edge off. We tried to stay in museums. Churches don't have AC but are cooler because of the high ceilings and stones used. Almost no restaurants had AC. I suggest waiting till the sun has set to eat and sitting outside.

For non-smokers, the problem with sitting outside is that you have no control over how many smokers are seated around you. Those sidewalk tables are very close together!

And don't get me started on restaurants (two in Ceret) whose solutions to the indoor-smoking ban were to set up no tables indoors or refuse to let me sit at any of the indoor tables (all unoccupied).

Even when air-conditioning is present in restaurants, it often is pretty weak. The equipment just doesn't seem to have been designed for 35C days.

I agree with Pam: Buy a paper fold up fan. It will save you from the heat bc as everyone has said, AC in France is not like AC in the US. It is minimal and great for cutting the edge but that's it.

There is AC in larger museums like the Louvre and department stores like BHV you won't need your fan (haha) but most other places will not have AC.

A guess about attitudes to air conditioning is that electricity is not cheap in France. Visitors may have noticed the elaborate switch systems to turn hotel hallway lights off when not being used by pedestrians. Another small but disheartening thought is that hotels without a/c probably will have windows that open, letting in street noise at night.

Last time I was in Paris, it was in the mid-30's celsius! My girls were 10 & 13 so we took advantage of the AC at McDonald's and at an "American" restaurant on 2 days & had ice cream on 2 days. Stick to the shade -- it helps a little -- and choose a terasse table rather than an indoor table to catch a breeze and avoid the stifling heat of confined spaces. Churches are cool inside so plan to admire them at the warmest point of the day.

Note: Paris never really cools down at night if you are staying in the core surrounded by stone buildings. It's like a pizza oven...they absorb the heat all day and release it back at night. We kept our (large French) hotel window open all night and the only blessing was that the breeze moved the air...it didn't cool it down. If you have the option of having a room facing away from other buildings or towards the river, it might help a bit at night.