bil

There's a clue there as to why Spain has a café culture, and England doesn't.

jdr

Maybe something to do with Spains climate.
Although UK Ménage à Trois will not agree.

Dick Dasterdly

It's always surprised me in the past, that so few traditional cafe/bars in Spain outside of touristy areas had tables and chairs outside.
It's obviously increasing rapidly now due mainly to the recent smoking regulations, yet I've always previously found other Med countries much keener to use outdoor seating areas, whilst the vast majority of traditional Spanish seemed content to confine themselves to their stinky smokey indoor bars.
In any event it's a very pleasing transformation to the eye to walk down the local streets now and see so many ppl contentedly sitting outside.

jackytoo

You can sit around comfortably in Paris as all the places have super efficient heaters. Places like Covent garden have them too. Some pubs have them but they never seem to be switched on

bil

Heating the countryside. Way to go!

For the last 5 or 6 years I've seen the café culture in full swing here, but I do agree that the smaller ventas tend to be 'indoors'.