At least 18 people died in France, including two children left in a hot car, as a heat wave gripped Europe and smashed temperature records in several cities Monday.
As schools in France closed or modified their schedules, forecasters in Britain predicted temperatures could break June records this week.
The temperature in Bordeaux in France’s western wine country rose to 41.9 C, breaking a record set last August. In Poitiers, in central France, it reached 41.2 C, surpassing a previous high set in 1947.


That and the fact that salaries are very low in France. I see americans talking about $200k a year for software engineers, where in France you get $50k a year on average if you’re a senior.
That is because for a long time software developers were paid way higher than anyone else in the tech industry. There are very very few engineers in the Midwest that get paid that.
If you compare CoL in silicon valley to France, it is literally 4x+ in many cases.
I moved from the Midwest (low CoL) to Belgium and my CoL went significantly down, like 40%.
Okay counter point, I can live minimum wage comfortably ish in France. You don’t need 200k to live here.
Also, I don’t think comparing the top 1% crack engineers is a good representation of salaries compared to cost of living.
You took 2 extremes, but even without that, consider that the french have retirement and health included
Sure, but an American making 50k probably doesn’t. The French absolutely does
Extremes is true and also very location dependent, but anyone making 200k in the u.s. also has insurance and a retirement package.
There’s no way those numbers are true as an American who’s in the industry. Like maybe super high end for USA and super low for France as outliers but you basically have to be a genius wizard to be making 200k a year as a software engineer anywhere in the USA. Even then it’ll only be in a super high cost of living place, no software dev in the Midwest is pulling 200k.
I definitely know software devs in the Midwest making more than 200k
Well good for them, I haven’t met any - I think we could at least agree that’s very rare.
Also this ignores that 50k goes a lot further in France than in the US. In my experience cost of living is around 1.5x in the US when you account for everything than it is in France.
I definitely know developers in France making more than twice that.