Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Paris Pont Neuf installation by JR transforms bridge into a cave The oldest bridge in Paris was draped in fabric last month to appear like a mountain cave, in an installation by the artist JR. Unlike a real cave, though, it didn't provide respite from a brutal heat wave. Special Series Far-Flung Postcards Greetings from Paris, where an art installation transformed the Pont Neuf into a rocky cave July 15, 20268:40 AM ET By
Rebecca Rosman
Rebecca Rosman/NPR If ever Paris needed a place to cocoon, it was the last week of June.
The week that the city turned into one giant sauna, when temperatures reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit.
The week that I got into a fight on a bus with a group of Parisians who didn't understand that windows, in fact, need to be kept closed in order for the air conditioning to work. (I lost).
The week that I took myself to the cinema — one of the few places offering any real reprieve — only to be told the air conditioning was broken because it "couldn't handle such unprecedented temperatures."
And then, walking around in a state of heat-induced delirium, I saw it. Or was it some sort of mirage?
The Pont Neuf, one of the city's most elegant bridges, perched above the Seine, had been transformed into a giant mountainous cave. Layers of fabric depicting rocky terrain were inflated over the bridge.
People were invited to walk through, part of an installation imagined by the French artist JR. Was this the respite I didn't know I needed?
Sadly, not even a cave could shield me from this heat. Rectangular fans deployed across its dark interior walls simply blew around hot air, evoking the feeling of a hammam steam room.
But it was magical — the cavern of Paris. And for a moment, I forgot about all the sweat dripping down my face.
For more Far-Flung Postcards, click here.