Very few French people run or regularly attend fitness centers and classes. And it is not only because of Covid and the risk for their health. Running or going to a fitness center is simply not part of the French culture.
But it doesn’t mean that most French people are couch potatoes. French people do exercise but it’s a low key kind of exercise: as you can see in this video, they walk and bike a lot.
And there are many reasons for this…
- In cities people walk a lot while commuting: walking in the subway corridors or to catch the bus is a form of regular exercise,
- The shape of the towns and cities also invite people to walking: in small towns as well as big cities, most shopping centers are walking areas and you need to walk from one store to the other,
- Plus in big cities (such as Paris) driving a car has intentionally become a hassle (public policies tend to ban cars in the city centers) so people walk or ride a bike deliberately,
- And I have found that environmental preoccupation is a real thing in Europe and in France, probably more than it is in the US.
You probably already know that when I moved to the US, after a couple of years I found myself exercising a lot less than I used to in France. And the reason was that I had almost stopped walking. Because here in the US we easily take our cars for everything and anything, even driving to the fitness center!
During these 13 days in Paris I easily walked daily 6 to 7 miles without even meaning it! Even if walking has been part of my intentional daily routine for the last 4 years in my small college town in Virginia, I have to make time for it. In Paris, I just did what I had to do and I was doing my exercising without even thinking about it (which was pretty cool 😊)
#walking , #easyexercise , #Frenchdiet