After days of wandering from one park to another in an overheated Bordeaux, William was able to reach the coolness of a municipal center open to the homeless during the heatwave on Monday, exhausted by temperatures that exceeded 41°C.
"Even at night, there's no air. I've tried everything, parks, fountains, nothing helps, I feel like my body is cooking. So being able to rest in a cool place without pressure is a joy," says this thirty-year-old who has been homeless for months, who did not want to give his last name, like the other people welcomed at the center.
Drinks, snacks, meals, and even camp beds: since the Gironde department moved to orange alert (Saturday and Sunday), then red on Monday, the eco-friendly town hall has opened the Jean-Moulin center, naturally cool thanks to its stone walls, to homeless people looking for a few hours of respite.
Three men, their faces sweating, sit down at a table after plunging into bottles of cold water. Next to them, head in hands, Thierry, 62, wanted only one thing: to "cool off."
"I do what I can, sometimes I sleep at the station, but with this heat it's no longer possible. And then wherever we go, they make it clear that we're not welcome, that they don't want us... whereas here, they welcome us, it warms the heart," says this bald man with a bushy white beard.
– “I can’t take it anymore” –
Sitting behind a large plastic table that serves as a counter, Jean-Michel Galan, a 69-year-old retiree, offers with a big smile compotes, cakes, tea or coffee, but also, for those who wish, hot or cold meals.
"I'm part of the Bordeaux Métropole Citizens' Reserve, which means I volunteer for one-off actions like this, but it can also be during fires or floods. Any situation where citizens are in danger," he says.
The vast majority of people who come are men, he says, adding that there are separate areas with beds for women, as well as personal hygiene kits.
Several hundred people are homeless in the Gironde capital, according to an annual census by the municipality. Notifying them of the implementation of such a system represents "the whole point of the matter," Stéphane Pfeiffer, deputy mayor in charge of urban planning and housing, explained to AFP, citing in particular outreach workers, associations, and social mediators.
With a large plastic shopping bag slung over her arm, an old woman, her back bent, walks painfully under a blazing sun. Holding a piece of paper reading "Centre Jean-Moulin," she asks passersby around her if they know "this place dedicated to people like me." "I can't take it anymore," she whispers.
A stone's throw from the center, just across from the town hall, a large white Red Cross truck completes the emergency response for the homeless. Fresh out of one of the two showers installed in the vehicle, Walid, a 42-year-old Tunisian, has wet hair and a big smile on his face.
“It feels great, I’ll be back!” he says.
English 
French