The effects of the forest fires near Bordeaux can be felt as far away as the French capital, Paris.

Only the rain showers in the night on Wednesday made the smell of burning disappear, which the strong wind had carried to the Seine.

The air quality is still bad.

The southwest was hit even harder.

Clouds of smoke lay over the cities of Bordeaux, Agen, Périgeux and Angoulême, and an unhealthy haze also spread to rural areas.

The French are shocked by the fires in the pine forests behind the well-known Dune of Pilat, the largest sand dune in Europe.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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Hans Christian Roessler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb based in Madrid.

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Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

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President Emmanuel Macron went to the scene of the fire on Wednesday to assure the firefighters and other helpers of his support.

Even before he arrived at the headquarters of the rescue services in La Teste-de-Buch, opposition politicians were outraged by the president's "communication show".

"The president is a fireman and an arsonist at the same time," said the leader of the green party Europe Ecologie Les Verts (EELV), Julien Bayou.

“By doing nothing, he is helping to make climate change worse.

Now he's coming to assess the damage," Bayou said.

"I am shocked that we are not passing a climate emergency law after a fire like this," said Left Party MP Louis Boyard.

The President of the Gironde Department, Jean-Luc Gleyze,

Since the fires broke out on July 12, 36,750 people, including many holidaymakers, have had to leave their homes in the popular holiday region on the Atlantic coast.

More than 20,600 hectares of pine forest burned down.

The firefighters are still fighting against several sources of fire, but the change in the weather has at least meant that the fire has not spread further.

Six campsites were 90 percent destroyed.

Difficult days ahead for Spain

New fires keep breaking out in Spain, despite lower temperatures.

More than 5,000 hectares burned near Ateca in the province of Zaragoza.

The residents of five villages and an old people's home were brought to safety.

The A2 motorway from Madrid to Barcelona was temporarily closed.

High-speed train services that connect Madrid to Aragon and Catalonia resumed on Wednesday morning, while regional trains are still unable to run between Madrid and Zaragoza.

The onset of wind made extinguishing the fire difficult.

According to initial estimates, at least 60,000 hectares of forest were destroyed by fires fueled by high temperatures during the recent heat wave.

The 16 fires in Galicia, in the north-west of the country, accounted for almost 20,000 hectares of this, and the Zamora area for more than 20,000 hectares.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned that there were "difficult days ahead in Galicia and in the rest of Spain" because of the persistently high temperatures and the wind.

According to updated information from the Carlos III Health Institute, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Health.

679 deaths in Spain can be attributed to the high temperatures in the first eight days of the heat wave.

The highest number was recorded last Sunday with 169 deaths.