Source: Townsville Daily Bulletin
URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article//62901881
Date: 18/08/1947
Event: Heat wave in Paris: "... it has been hotter in Paris than in Dakar"
Credit: Townsville Daily Bulletin, Trove (National Library of Australia)
TOWNSVILLE DAILY BULLETIN - AUG 18, 1947
PARIS FROM DAY TO DAY
Sweltering In The Heat (Air Mail from Our Special Correspondent In Paris)
After eight days of shade temperature running up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit In Paris, France's fourth heat wave for the summer still shows no sign of coming to an end, and the capital is sweltering in a humid heat that is very hard to bear. This last week it has been hotter in Paris than in Dakar or Djibouti, and the hot spell apparently holds the record here since 1865.
Some people affirm, however, that this is the first normal summer since the war. and unselfishly rejoice that the weather should be so perfect for people on the beaches. There is indeed, a widespread popular belief that the war did actually cause a modification in European climate, bringing unusually severe winters and cool rainy summers.
In this weather half the people left in Paris spend their time, whether at home or at work, behind closed shutters or drawn blinds. The other half are in the streets, trying to get a breath of fresh air on the terraces of the cafes, where the paper fans provided by the management are working overtime. Iced beer is the longest and probably the most common drink (from sixpence a glass, Danish or Dutch beer tenpence to a shilling), but iced mineral water and bottled fruit juices — cherry, raspberry, blackcurrant, grape, apple, orange - are very much in favor. Milk bars, unfortunately, though they still bear their pre-war name, have not sold a milk-shake for many years, but good-quality ice cream is gradually coming back.
Popular Venue
The Bois de Boulogne is popular especially in the evening, with those who live near-by, or with those who have care to take them there. It would not be worth while making this journey in the stifling Metro (underground railway), even to benefit from the considerable difference in temperature between the Bois and the city. There is always a slight breeze in the Bois, and you can spend the evening, or the night if you wish, in a canoe on the lake, or else sit listening to an orchestra at one of the outdoor tables of those brilliant and fashionable cafe-restaurants which make islands of light amongst the dark trees.
All day long the banks of the Seine are frequented by bathers, in spite of the regulation which, for hygenlc reasons, forbids bathing in the river, except in recognised baths, where the water is filtered and chlorinated. During the lunch hour, which Is generally long in France, nobody seems to suspect the existence of such a regulation, least of all the police on water front duty. Girls from offices near the river, who do not go home for their lunch, need only to strip off their light frocks to reveal a brief cotton two-piece bathing suit which dries in a few minutes when they come out of the water.
It does not do, however, to have too much imagination when swimming in the Seine, nor to open your mouth in the water. Besides the two or three bathing establishments along the Seine, there are a few good artificial pools which are always crowded. Long queues are to be seen at the doors waiting to get in. One of the best small pools in Paris, belonging to the City Universitaire, is. unfortunately, closed during the whole of the university summer vacation, to the distress of the many foreign students in Paris for vacation courses or simply for a vacation.
Household Worries
Household life is considerably complicated by the heat. Paris flats and, in particular, Paris kitchens, are not planned for hot weather. Refrigerators and ice chests being practically unknown, milk must be boiled immediately it is brought from the dairy (sometimes even that is too late), butter goes to oil, and meat cannot be kept at all; the butchers' shops are open only from Friday to Sunday each week.
Ice can rarely be bought, even by those who possess ice chests, as it goes by priority to dairies and cafes, which as a rule cannot get enough for their own use. How many Parisians regret now not having bought refrigerators before the war, when their circumstances would have permitted it. Before the war, though, they would not have dreamt of staying in Paris during July and August, nor did they need to keep food in the house for more than a few hours in those happy days when tradesmen delivered their goods daily and there were servants to run the messages.