Paris: France has hit its highest recorded temperature ever - 45.9 degrees - amid a heatwave in Europe that has claimed several lives.

The record was measured in the southern town of Gallargues-le-Montueux and narrowly pipped what had been a record temperature of 45.1 degrees taken moments earlier in the small southern town of Villevieille, according to French media.

Before this year, the previous record was 44.1 degrees during a heatwave in 2003 that killed thousands.

Parisians and tourists cool off in the Trocadero esplanade fountain near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Friday. Credit:Bloomberg

Schools are dousing kids with water and nursing homes are equipping the elderly with hydration sensors as France and other nations battle a record-setting heat wave baking much of Europe.