By Cecile Mantovani and Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, June 24 (Reuters) – Daniel Gillieron, 82, settled into his seat in Geneva’s Nord-Sud cinema, looking forward to the prospect of a free film and an extended blast of air-conditioning as a heatwave baked the streets outside.
He was one of hundreds of over-65s who have flocked to free daytime screenings organised by cinemas and regional authorities to give seniors a break.
Temperatures are set to hit as high as 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) this week in the city, according to the MeteoSuisse weather agency.
“The hotter it gets, the more the cinema becomes a place of refuge,” Laurent Dutoit, manager of three of the cinemas taking part, told Reuters.
Around 650 people have taken up the offer since Thursday, he added.
“It’s fantastic because it allows us not only to get out of the house and go to the cinema, but also to have an air-conditioned theatre … and to have a good time,” Gillieron said.
June is set to become one of the hottest on record in Switzerland, amid a heatwave that has swept across Europe. Daytime temperatures have climbed as high as 35 C in lowland areas, with some regions exceeding 36 C.
“It truly underscores the exceptional nature of this heatwave, which is … very long and quite intense,” MeteoSuisse forecaster Elie Kirchner said.
The heatwave is also earlier than usual. Temperatures typically soar in Switzerland around the second half of July and the first half of August.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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