Exercise: French Edition

The title of this blog is quite the oxymoron. Here's why: as a whole, French people don't exercise. At least not in the same way Americans do. There are two types of Americans: fat ones, and super intense health freak ones. French people are not like this. They are moderate. They eat moderately, they walk around, and they smoke a whole lot. They also have miraculous metabolisms that allow them to eat vast amounts of carbs without gaining weight. As a result of this phenomenon, I rarely see people running here. If I do, it's either men or middle-aged women who's carbo-loading has finally caught up to them. Girls my age DEFINITELY do not run.

Unfortunately, I don't possess the French girl metabolism. I watch what I eat, and used to work out every day back home. Here, I don't have access to a gym, but I told myself that as soon as it was warm out, I would go run outside. There are some nice parks around, and the river is also nice to run on. Today, I suggested this idea to two of my friends, and we set off to this really nice park. We had to metro there, which meant we had to walk to the metro in our running clothes. This posed a problem, as we had to walk past cafés and the shopping mall that the metro stop is on. I don't know how the French who go to the gym get there, but I never see them walking around in their workout clothes. The amount of carbs they eat in comparison with how thin they are means magic must exist, so maybe they apparate? Or teleport? Puzzled, we awkwardly walked past staring people stylishly sitting at their tables and sipping coffee. And when I say staring, I mean STARING. I actually heard one woman say, "Quel horreur!" Humiliated, we darted into the solace of the metro. But it wasn't much better in there. None of us spoke in order to draw the least amount of attention to ourselves. I felt like I wasn't wearing any clothes, the way people were looking. Finally, we got to the park, where at least some people were running.

These people didn't look like us, though. The few French people who do run dress very differently than American runners. Despite the fact that in their everyday life, the French are usually impeccably dressed, their workout style is quite lacking. I know it's not important what you look like when you work out, but I'm used to the spandex shorts and colorful workout tops people wear at my recreation complex at Mizzou. At the rec, you dress to impress. I never go without earrings. I'm serious. I had no idea people would look so incredibly dorky when they worked out here. On women, I saw a lot of ragged sweatshirts, too-short track pants (the ones made out of that swishy material that were popular in the late '90s) and bad shoes. I even saw one girl running in DENIM SHORTS (the only female runner I saw under age 40) Everyone was also wearing way too much clothing for how warm it was. Long sleeved shirts with jackets over the top, and long pants. I felt like a complete floozy in my capris and tank top. I felt worse for my friends, who were wearing shorts. The men, however, dressed on the opposite end of the spectrum. I saw many alarmingly-short shorts, and very small tank tops.

All in all, it was a successful run, workout wise. Fashion wise, I don't know what I'm going to do. Probably take up night running.