“Little French Siberia”: this village in the Doubs where it’s always cold

Since the start of winter, temperatures have continued to drop in France. If the weekend of December 10 should experience a cold episode with temperatures below 0°C over a large part of the territory, a small village is already experiencing a much more intense cold.

With its record of -41°C reached in January 1985, the small town of Mouthe in the Doubs has become the coldest city in France. Nicknamed the little French Siberia, this village is used to temperatures around -20°C.

Even in summer, the heat is very rarely needed. In July and August 2022, when the whole of the metropolitan territory suffered major heat waves and the Gironde was on fire, in Mouthe, temperatures of – 4°C were already recorded, as reported by France 3 regions. The village is located in a basin where the air is trapped and cooled during the night, which explains such low temperatures.

“-9°C, it’s not a very low temperature, all the inhabitants are used to it”, assured Daniel Perrin, the mayor of the town, in the columns of Point in 2017. In the corner, the walls of the farms are thick and the houses are insulated on the outside as well as on the inside. The pipes are particularly deep since they are buried 50 cm deep to prevent them from freezing.

As for the inhabitants, they have their own tricks for not succumbing to the cold. “When there is a cold spell, we eat a good sausage that nourishes, we put on a big sweater or a blanket and we are not colder than elsewhere”, affirmed Danièle Pruniaux, a 62-year-old Meuthiarde, with our colleagues.