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CANNES HEAT
H O T & W E T
C Ô T E . D ' A Z U R
Allure, Bonheur and
la GRANDE CHALEUR
Of the Summer of 2003

by Dr. Susan Block

Photo: Miaz Brothers .. From the Festival International de la Photographie de Mode Auguest 2003 exhibit at the Palm Beach Casino

Wouldn't you know it, but our first summer trip to France's glittering Côte D'Azur turned out to be the hottest summer not just in memory, but in history. Natives and visitors alike were sweltering, melting, collapsing, even dying. No joke; some experts estimated that as many as 10,000 French citizens died from the heat--"la chaleur" as they say en français.

Though some argued that figure was exaggerated, no one could deny that heat stroke, dehydration and hyperthermia reached epidemic proportions. Pets and farm animals succumbed along with the humans. And the hills were alive, not just with the usual music of summer festivals and parties, but with the fires of arsonist-terrorists, exacerbated into scorched-earth scenes of devastation, with the help of the unprecedented heat. Everyone was blamed for the deaths, from the government (Dr. Lucien Abenhaim, Director General for Health, resigned), to French culture itself for the almost sacred tradition of taking off the entire month of August (whilst leaving the old folks to broil in apartments without air conditioning), to the policies of US President George W Bush for escalating the decimation of the ozone layer.

But more on the lethal heat later. It was our first summer in Cannes, the "vacances" capital of Europe, perhaps of the world, since the glory days of the Belle Époque when kings and czarinas vacationed in wedding cake-shaped villas on the stunning Côte D'Azur. With all that historical hedonism around us, we weren't about to let a little thing like toxically high temperatures get in the way of our good time. We'd already spent a couple of autumns and a spring at Mipcom, MipTV and the Festival du Film in Cannes. But this was summer: L'été. Besides, the horrors of blazing heat do have a few benefits. Any light breeze feels divine, the sea is delicious, and all of the beaches are filled to overflowing with dazzling, topless beauties.

Just a couple of the many topless beauties at the OK Beach by Port Du Cannes .... PHOTOS: SUZY