In France it's a cross between a sin, American influence, and something that will destroy your health. Hospitals and retirement homes lack AC and excess deaths occur among the elderly population.

I guess there's the unintended consequence of making the healthcare costs cheaper, if you let the older people cook under unusual weather patterns (even if they are unusual every summer now).

What's particularly weird, but also very French, is it's now a Right v Left issue, with the Left saying we should explore building design ideas for passive cooling instead of hurting the environment further (after all suffering is our own fault for hurting the environment and we should be exposed to that consequence), while the Right is pushing for AC.

Whatever it is, if you go to Paris make sure you stay in a hotel or an Airbnb with A/C.