Ice Cream Vans as an indication of attitudes about the climate
April 5th, 2007 | 
Author: 
Although Northern Ireland is definitely cooler than the south of France, one surprising difference is that Northern Ireland has icecream vans at just about every possible location that you’d find crowds of people whereas France seems to have none of these.That’s indicative of quite a different attitude towards the climate in general between NI and France which we’ve seen illustrated numerous times whilst we’ve been here.
As soon as the temperature drops below around 30c over here, all the locals don their Winter coats. Not just any old Winter coat either for the coats on sale in the local shops seem more suited to Arctic conditions than the, usually, very mild Winters that we get here. Although it’s been warm enough for us to be running around in t-shirts almost all the time since March 2006 (yes, all year), the local population has been wearing their heavy coats since late September.
Perhaps the most noticeable difference that we’ve seen though is when our son was born here at the end of August. As you can imagine, it was pretty hot then (high 30s) and the maternity ward was even warmer than that. Now, I know that the rule is to wrap up babies after they’re born but with those kind of temperatures, we just put a nappy on him and nothing else. Yet, every time the nurses came into the room they insisted in wrapping him in three layers of clothing. Net effect? Well, if we’d stayed any longer he’d have been dehydrated as the sweat was just pouring out of him with all that clothing and he clearly wasn’t comfortable.
He’s still considerably behind in his vaccinations too because anytime that we’ve taken him along between roughly March and October they announce that he’s got a fever and can’t get the vaccination. Even outside that time, it’s often warm enough for him to “have a fever” so we’re lucky if we manage one vaccination per year.
So, whilst the icecream vans appear in Northern Ireland in March at perhaps 15c, you’d be unlikely to find anything similar below 25c over here.
Copyright © 2004-2014 by Foreign Perspectives. All rights reserved.
Posted in 
Interesting story about the ice cream trucks. I have to wonder if it has anything to do with the weather, or the French just don’t like eating ice cream on a stick while walking around? I grew up in an area where an ice cream truck, ringing it’s bells, was the first sign of summer. Now, it seems the trucks come around infrequently, and they’ve dumped their bells and now play the most horrible music. Instead of the sweet sound of bells, we are forced to endure the cranked up music of “The Turkey in the Straw”, an annoying tune all on its own. They also drive down the street so fast, that no child could keep up with them. I have to wonder how they make any money at all!
Regarding the temperatures in France, I see the same thing on the Western Coast of the United States. The winter temperatures aren’t that cold, but they dress like Eskimos in the winter. Then, during winter in the Midwest, the teenagers are donning shorts and light jackets as soon as the temperatures reach 5 Celsius (@40 degrees Fahrenheit). Of course, the teenagers are all shivering, but they think they look “cool”. 😉
Thank you for the post, Arnold, it makes me anxious for the hot days of summer.
Interesting that Australians don’t overdo the clothing yet Americans do. I wonder why?
Arnold
I’m not sure why that happens. I’ve never been to Australia, so I don’t know much about the climate. However, in the US, the weather is so different from one region to the next and many people move to different regions for reasons such as employment transfers, kids going to University, or just because they want to move to another region after retirement. Not sure if that is far-fetched, but I can’t think of anything else. Maybe genetics has something to do with it? You know the United States, the melting pot and all. Just a guess.
The climate in Australia is probably even more varied than it is in the US. You’ve monsoon type climate in the north, almost permanent Summer in the south and quite a unique combination of weather in the middle. However, it’s so sparsely populated that I get the impression that the population isn’t as mobile as it is in the US.
Shouldn’t really be the genetics either as Australia would have a broadly similar mix as in the US (ie basically European with Pacific region settlers in some areas).
I wonder if it’s to do with the range of climate that a given area would experience? In the UK it’s probably 10c +/- 10c or so in most places whereas here you get from 0c to 40c. Same thing in the more populated areas of Australia eg Sydney probably runs from 15c to 35c ie a similar range to the UK.
Arnold
Hmmm…your third possibility seems that it could be possible. In the Midwest of the US, the temps can vary dramatically in one week or even in one day. For instance, last week we had temperatures in the high 70’s to low 80’s (@26-27c). This week it was in the 30’s F (-1c to 2c). Just as the leaves started to show up on the trees and the tulips began to bloom, we had to take our winter coats from the closets again. It could be warm and sunny in the morning and by noon a storm will come through and the temperatures will drop suddenly, which explains the tornando’s we experience in the Spring.
To be honest, I’m not sure there is a perfect place to live, we all just have to adjust to the environment we are in. I do see many of the elderly moving to the south or the southwest because of the warmer weather. I imagine as you get older, the cold is just a little harder to take. Unfortunately, those who have moved to Florida or anywhere near the Gulf have to deal with the hurricanes that come along every year. After Katrina, people are taking more caution. I hear that we are to expect a bad year for hurricanes again and a draught in the West. France is sounding better every minute. As long as I don’t run into any of those like the SuperFrenchie crowd. A scary bunch, they.
Depends on what you mean by perfect.
The people in northern Europe basically move south to, mainly, Spain as you know although France is quite popular too. I’d say that the likes of Malta and Cyprus will be innundated with retirees from northern Europe now that they’d in Europe and can’t turn them away anymore. Personally, I don’t think that you can get “perfect” in terms of the temperature. It’s certainly close to it where we are now but not quite there as it’s a little too warm in the Summer.
Bit like the birds really. In Northern Ireland we watched the birds doing their circling round in the Autumn before deciding to head south for the Winter. Of course, now that we’re “south” ourselves they still circle but in the Spring before heading north.
I’m sure that I could talk myself into having a home for the Winter and another for the Summer. Now, if only I could scrape together the money to do that….
“I’m sure that I could talk myself into having a home for the Winter and another for the Summer. Now, if only I could scrape together the money to do that€¦.”
Yes, it would be nice to have multiple homes. It sounds like you have a great place to live, though. The pictures you have put on the blog are beautiful and no one can take away the beauty of France.
Happy Easter to you Arnold! Thanks for the chat. 🙂
The reason there are no ice cream vans in France is because it is illegal to drive around in a van from place to place selling ice creams! Nothing more than that – it is nothing to do with some kind of profound difference in attitudes – just the law!
Ah, but that law itself represents a difference in attitudes. Granted it’s more likely to have come from an effort to protect the existing businesses that sell icecream rather than a difference in the attitude towards icecream itself.