Tens of thousands of households in north-western France have been without power as heat continues to grip the country, the Finistère regional administration, based in Quimper in Brittany, said on Wednesday.
A total of 68,000 households were affected, it said. The reason was an incident involving a transformer on Tuesday linked to the high temperatures. The households could be reconnected to the grid no earlier than the evening.
The highest heat warning level, red, is currently in effect for 58 French departments, including Finistère. France's weather service Météo-France described the situation as an unusually intense heatwave. It said temperature records could be broken during the day.
The western city of La Rochelle, which is on France's Atlantic coast and usually profits from an ocean breeze, had temperatures of nearly 30 degrees Celsius at 5 am (0300 GMT). Average June temperatures according to MétéoFrance are around 23 degrees.
The thermometer reached 27 degrees in Bordeaux at 5 am, with a forecast to reach 42 degrees around midday. It was 26 degrees in Paris in the early morning, with temperatures expected to rise to 41 degrees - 17 degrees above the capital city's normal temperature for this time of year.
