La Canicule

Dispatch from a Paris heat wave.

A woman bathes a baby in the Seine during the Paris heat wave of 27 July 1948. Photo via Keystone-France.

There was a heat wave on in Paris yesterday, une canicule. I love the word in French but hate the phenomenon. From the Latin for the “dog days” of summer, or Sirius the Dog Star (canicula, as in canine), the word nevertheless makes me think of a cruc…