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| Fat Frog |
The reason for this is their changing habits and their total emulation of American culture - eating in fast food chains has become a cheap and easy way to kill a few hours for French parents. There are 12 very busy McDonalds in the department where we live ( pop of 400,000), along with a handful of Quicks ( the French Mcdonalds) and a KFC that opened 2 years ago. The evening KFC opened, eager clients waited in queues for kilometres, blocking roads and roundabouts and required police intervention. Les Francais are hungry for it!
The sad thing is that it is mostly the kids that are getting chunky, as the parents are pretty careful about what passes their lips ( coffee, cigarettes, diet pills...) and are for the most part obsessed about their weight and yours as well, by the way!
But, the world doesn't really want to hear this do they? Books like "French Women Don't Get Fat" and "French Kids Eat Everything" are adorned with pictures of healthy thin French women skipping gaily and happily (guffaw) about their lives, eating fruit and vegetables in season and delighting in taking the stairs rather than the lift ( guffaw). They depict French Kids obediently eating their braised calves livers and haricots verts while docile at the table for hours on end. People want to buy into this and bestsellers fly off the shelves as the rest of the world tries to copy this cool and thin chicness.
This week is "Semaine du Gout" , the week of taste, here in France and so there had been a lot of talk about food education and habits in France. Amazing that a country's habits can change in such a short time frame .. let's hope that they get back on track. After all, French food and all that goes with it is one of the things we all love about France, n'est-ce pas?
Great post - I did something similar on french kids eating pate! Glad to hear they aren't immune to being fatties too - no the children mind that's just really sad as it is in this country x
ReplyDeleteI read it, great article. You can put a link here to it if you like? xx
DeleteHaha… Do you enjoy calling French people fat? It was defo not like that when I left and I don't realize this when I go home, I’m from the countryside and pretty much everyone I know cooks or eat well. My 11 year old niece would always choose an apricot over a chocolate cake (weirdo)! My French friends are skinny bitches and I always feel the fattest. Ireland made me chubbier, well beer and the craic did this to me, I always blame my Irish other half! I hate when people feed their kids with crap, I often see Irish people in the city center giving fizzy drinks and crisps to their kids in the morning and think it isn’t fair on them. Loads of Frenchies would love to have Burger King in France. Oh well, thanks for breaking the urban legend: French people do get fat ;-)
ReplyDeleteSeems to be a phenomenon that's taken off in the last 10 years or so..I do feel skinny when I come back to Ireland though!
DeleteI remember you saying befire that you knew when the hols had started as the fat French from the north arrrived!
ReplyDeleteMcDonalds was always full in our little local town and the only skinny women you saw were visiting politicians' wives and accessories.
The women are still pretty skinny here in the Deep South , in fact are obsessed with being skin and bone, which , you know , is not that attractive either?!
DeleteMaybe they are getting fatter but alot of girls here (sweeping statement coming up) are on 'regime' from a very young age. So is it just fat boys??????
ReplyDeleteGood Point!
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