° (Note: For the first time, I am writing this on a French keyboard, which is very different than the primarily English language ones I am used to: Generall, when I write, I am not looking down on the keyboard. This time, I generqlly have to: Just enough letters and symbols have been changed to ,ake this significantly trickier than normal. So mistakes have been made, and I simply cannot promise to catch them all. Apologies in advance. Thus; I will thank the reader in advance for providing me some leway with mistakes which I likely will not catch).
I am surprising myself with the updates for the French Open in the past few days now. This marks the third time in recent days that I am publishing a blog entry regarding the French Open. That is two more than expected, frankly.
However, this one is a little different.
Last night, I ran into this article and it stopped me. You see, France was hit with a massive heat wave recently, and I arrived right on time for it. The first few days were hot, but for some reason, I thought that it would breqk well before the end of this trip;
But it did not break.
The heat in France stubbornly stuck throughout.
In fact, one good thing came out of it. Now I am quite familiar with a word in French which I did not know before this trip; The word is chaleur, or heat. Everyone was talking about it, from family members to people on the street to news broadcasts.
Indeed, the heat was simply relentless.
It was quite hot a few days ago, while I was at Roland Garros for the French Open event. And the news has been all about the heat and how it has i,pacted play there, too.
Jannik Sinner, the current number one ranked man in the world, apparently got lucky by getting a night draw for the first round. The article went on about how Sinner's one notable weakness has been when he has to play in excessive heat, so he caught a break. Other players have been impacted, and their play affected, as well.
Yesterday, probably the most extreme example of the heat impacting a player occurred. Jakub Mensik, a Czech player, collapsed onto the terre battue just moments after winning his match against Jakub Mensik collapsed after his victory over his opponent, Mariano Navone of Argentina.
Navone checked on Mensik and tried to offer some comford before the paramedics came. Technically, I believe that this is frowned upon. That players are not supposed to have any sort of direct contact, other than the post-match handshake. But give credit to Navone for being human enough to be concerned and provide a little help to a fallen fellow athlete.
That, to me, seemed to perfectly illustrate just how hot it has been in Paris and France more generally for the past week. Even a conditioned athlete in the best shape of his life, and having just won an impressive victory over another relatively elite athlete in their sport, can collapse of heat-related circumstqnces, just like that.
Now granted, I did not exactly play any tennis while I was here. Nothing even remotely that extreme.
Yet, it really has been uncomfortable during the peak hours on most days. I have been careful to stay in the shade as much as possible, to wear a hat, and to stop and drink frequently. We even almost had a medical emergency with an older member yesterday. I am not a doctor or an expert, but it is difficult to imagine the heat not playing some part in that situation.
So it has been uncomfortably hot by, say, maybe ten in the morning until fairly well into the evening. It finally cools off significantly after maybe nine in the evening, or so.
While I am leaving France tomorrow, the heat wave is set to continue for at least a few days still after my departure.
Admittedly, it has not likely made my visit more comfortable.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
For now, it is early morning as I write this. Just seven in the morning. The windows are open and the birds are singing. Seems like there are more birds and/or they are louder than in North America. The air is as cool as it likely will get until maybe this time tomorrow. In fact, it is refreshingly cool for the time being; Temperatures in the lower sixties, perhaps. A nice, cool breeze. The sun is not yet punishing or relentless, as we have witnessed it now in recent days.
But it will get there.
This kind of heat spell in France - especially this early in the year - worries me. I do not remember it ever being quite this hot in France before during my childhood trips. But I experienced it in the summer of 1998. That was the first time that I had ever shaved my head, and I got the worst sunburn of my entire life during that heat wave.
Unfortunately, heat waves no longer are rare in France, or in Europe more generally. Or almost anywhere, for that matter.
Sadly, it seems like this is, or will be, the new normal.
Player collapses moments after hitting winning shot at French Open by Sonia Twigg, Wed, May 27, 2026:
Mariano Navone pats a stricken Jakub Mensik Jakub Mensik collapsed after his victory over Mariano Navone, who checked on him before paramedics arrived on court
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/player-collapses-moments-hitting-winning-171449589.html
Player collapses moments after hitting winning shot at French Open - Yahoo Sports
