The sales assistants at Le Bon Marché, Paris's Harvey Nichols, had given up trying to sell by Monday. The store was unusually full for a weekday in August, with people flicking disinterestedly through racks of shirts, discovering the astonishing variety in men's underwear, spraying aftershave samples on to their wrists, with only the occasional ring of a cash register to disturb the sound of their shuffling feet. Today's crowd, after all, was not interested in shopping. They were there for the air conditioning.For the past two weeks, each morning in Paris has felt like dawn in the Nefud Desert. You will recall the scene in Lawrence of Arabia where our hero leads his ragtag Arab forces across the ferocious stretch of desert known as the Sun's Anvil in order to take Aqaba from the rear. Having crossed the seemingly uncrossable, Lawrence realises he has lost his friend Gasim somewhere in the swirling sands."We cannot go back," the Arabs tell him. "Gasim's time is come, Lawrence, it is written."

"Nothing is written," says El Aurens, before heading back into the furnace. Next, we see Gasim cowering under his djellaba as the sun begins to rise, blazing dreadfully. But Lawrence rides to his rescue and returns to his stunned forces to declare again: "Nothing is written."On Sunday morning, as the pitiless sun rose over Paris, and my wife and infant son wilted in the heat of our airless flat, I went into Lawrence mode. "Into the car," I ordered. And so, over my wife's objections that we were behaving like poor white trash - "Why don't we just climb in the bathtub with a six pack?" - we cruised around the empty streets of Paris in our air-conditioned Volvo, the coolest place in the city, pumping hydrofluorocarbons into the air.We stopped for a while at the chic little Marmottan Museum, to sit in the air-conditioned basement gallery and stare at Monet's Impression , Sunrise, the painting which gave the name to the movement. We saw parts of the city we had never seen before, staring out at the perspiring pedestrians as if we were on a moving walkway going through a shark tank.

At lunchtime, we ate in an air-conditioned Indian restaurant. And after another couple of hours of driving, we retired to the courtyard of the Georges V, Paris's finest hotel, ordered two beers and made them last until after dusk, rocking our boy back and forth in his pram until he went to sleep. Only then were we ready to go home.When my parents used to take me on summer holidays to sizzling foreign capitals, my father would cool off by sitting in the darkened hotel bathroom with a couple of John Player Specials and a bucket of iced drinks. central air conditioning cost ottawaMy mother would then take me off to the nearest five-star hotel and we would sit in the air-conditioned lobby for hours nursing one Coke each and relishing the cold leather seats.vrf ac unitsThis was 20 years ago and I imagined that, returning to Europe last year after four years in New York, where you went from air-conditioned office to car to shop to home, things might have improved. furnace blower motor pulley

Instead, I found the nobility of sweat lingers on.France is as badly equipped for hot weather as Network Rail is for leaves on their tracks. Government offices, banks and the larger corporations, naturally, are fine. But try the Louvre, which claims to be air-conditioned but has you feeling as moist as chocolate cake within minutes. Few homes or restaurants or small shops have air conditioning. Public transport is hell.For some reason, the French have been slow to perceive air conditioning as progress, unlike the Italians, Greeks and Spanish, who are years ahead of them. Sales of home air conditioners are finally rising by about 20 per cent a year and nine out of 10 new European cars come with air conditioning. There is now not a home unit to be had in Paris and shops have had signs in their windows for weeks saying: "No air conditioners or fans left."But still, the French remain maddeningly ambivalent about the technology. Not for the admirable environmental reason that the process generates more heat than cool.

It just seems excessive, obese and McDonald's-ish. The only time it is needed is in July and August, when any proper Frenchman is by the sea or buried deep in some rural dell. To admit air conditioning into France would be to admit American and Asian work practices. Before you knew it, everyone would be on two weeks' holiday a year and forgoing a proper lunch for a sandwich at their desk.The French were not always so stubborn about cooling down. There is a Metro stop in Paris called Glacière, a reminder of the underground cellars where ice would be stored in winter to keep the royal court cool in summer.Which makes me think there is a deeper modern truth here. Is it an American belief in the perfectibility of the human condition through technology versus a French acceptance of man's powerlessness before the greater forces of nature? Even as Paris burns and the elderly, to quote the head of the emergency doctors' association, "drop like flies", are they just fighting that old battle against Americanisation?

Imagine the scandal if these people were dying of cold.Or do the French think that accepting air conditioning would mean acknowledging their country's imperfection? Unlike the British, who will happily do all they can to conquer their climate - one thinks of Mike Ball, 46, who developed frostbite this week after driving from London to Manchester with his bare foot beside an air-conditioning vent - could the French be reluctant to accept that their weather, and their time-honoured means of dealing with it, such as lining the roads with shady trees, are anything but ideal?I knew a Texan woman in New York who said that Christmas at her parents' house in San Antonio meant decking the tree, pulling on jumpers with reindeer designs and cranking up the air conditioning to a Lapland chill so they could roast chestnuts indoors even if it was 90 degrees outside. Excessive, perhaps, but it beats hanging around the menswear section waiting for the rains to come.There are times when I am extremely thankful for air conditioning -- usually after I have had a long workout on a hot summer's day and am still sweating after a cold shower.

The cold, dry air is invigorating and refreshing. But usually, after about 30 minutes, I find myself shivering and needing to go back outside. Indeed, I have found that the majority of homes I have visited and more so, public offices and stores, the air conditioning temperature is set so low that I find myself feeling sick so that I have to step outside. I also find that I am more tired and my muscles more sore from shivering all day. So I decided to look into why this is and what we should all know about air conditioning. To begin, I do contest to the positive side of air conditioners, as they are beneficial to those individuals who suffer from asthma and allergies, as pollen and dust are filtered through the system. The air conditioners also dry out the humidity and usually clean out the air, enabling us to breathe cleaner air and not be over-run by heat stroke. The problem is, however, that these systems need to be extremely well-maintained, checked and cleaned, or all these benefits are trumped by breathing problems and infections.

More so, keeping the room temperature so cold has other negative consequences. These are the top five negative health consequences that you want to be aware of:When air conditioners are not cleaned thoroughly and filters changed, a breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria and fungi is created. These systems especially can be home to black mold, as moisture can build up in the coils and ducts from condensation that forms when the cool air passes through. When these microorganisms go air-borne, they can lead to a multitude of breathing problems, including a potentially fatal infectious pneumonia, Legionnaire's disease, caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila. Remedy: Make sure your air conditioning systems are cleaned regularly and the filter changed every few months. 2. Fatigue, headaches and generally feeling ill. Many individuals find that after a day of work, they often feel more tired than usual, headachy and a general sense of malaise. They also find that once they leave the building, the symptoms often resolve.

Sometimes termed "sick building syndrome," it may be that air conditioning may be the cause. In a study published in the Aug. 19, 2004 International Journal of Epidemiology, people working in office buildings with central air conditioning had more symptoms of illness than those who did not work in buildings with central air. Remedy: Raise the temperature slightly so that you are not shivering and take regular breaks to step outside for fresh air and for your body temperature to equilibrate.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is warning us that we may be more exposed to pollutants inside than outside, especially because central air conditioning does not bring in fresh air but circulates old air. This means that if there is mold, dust, animal dander or other people in the building have viruses or air-borne infections, individuals are more prone to be exposed and get sick. Remedy: Some systems are built to a low in a "leak" from the outside. You can create your own leak by cracking open a window even slightly.