The French

[SeeYouWhenISeeYou]

Just been to Biarritz for a week. I went feeling good as I have lost some weight, got some nice outfits and thought I was set. Ince there I found myself surrounded by svelte, impossibly good looking, tanned people of all ages, wafting around in gorgeous linens with minimal jewellery, somehow cool in the sweltering heat. They were slim despite the amazing food on offer (and carrying baguettes under their arms!!), had simple perfect haircuts and apparently never got bitten by mosquitoes. Meanwhile I could only wear flat flip flops because my feet swelled too much for my wedge espadrilles, my fake tan slid off, my patchy white legs were covered in scars from relentless mosquito bites, my hair exploded into a frizzball in the humidity and even though my outfits were cotton they somehow looked wrong. By the end of the week I looked like I had been on a survival course rather than a chic French beach holiday.

Growing up, every woman I knew ate bread. Some were thin, some were average, some were fat. But there was bread every day. There were also copious amount of sweet cakey/bready treats full of preservatives and e-numbers. We have aisles and aisles of the supermarket dedicated to them!! We kids used to live off them!

I’m not really aware of having access to good quality skin care growing up, it’s not really something that’s stuck in my head. I used to go to bed all the time with my make up on! It was the older British ladies I remember with their lotions and potions on the dressing table when we went to visit - I always thought they were so glamorous! Always with a shampoo and set once a week!

We also drink like fish and smoke like chimneys, our alcohol consumption per capita is much higher than the UK. Maybe it’s the fags that repel the mosquitos and the liver disease giving us a lovely glow!!

It’s the same in any wealthy holiday destination, whether it’s the Hamptons, Portfofino, Mykonos, Saint Tropez or anywhere else. Nothing to do with being French.

I think the tans help so much. Super smooth and all over - no T-shirt lines and shirts marks! They must spend HOURS sunbathing to look like that - I always have shorts lines from dog walking etc and a white tummy so I look really weird in a bikini. No one will look polished if you’re about 5 different shades of tan!

I lived in France for a while and felt more chic and dressed better so I think it’s somehow catching. It was autumn though, and I was 21. In summer, now, I’d also be a mosquito bite-ridden frizzfest.

Haha, we've just been in France, further up the coast than biarritz, and can confirm it's just the area. We go every year to different parts, and yes, there are some very well turned out people, but there are a lot who are not as well dressed, and are larger. I've noticed, over the years, that the clothing in the shops has definitely increased in size.

A tan really does help to make people look healthier and actually slimmer. (In my opinion). Maybe a spray tan next time?

The people who always catch my eye are the tall, very tanned Dutch. As a short, fat brit, it seems unfair they got all those genes.

@Seaside3 Ha, there always seems to be a lot of tall tanned Germans about when I go on holiday. I try to do the whole English Rose/porcelain complexion thing but it doesn't work so well on the beach with a sweaty pink face and frizzy hair 😂

@fetachocolate I tan quite well, and go blonde, as are my kids. People ofyen aaaumw i am dutch. Just one I just who was shortchanged on height genes.

I often wonder what people think about us brits. Are we all badly dressed frumpy people to them?

I'm tall and Dutch, but definitely don't tan beautifully. I go from translucent to red to slightly beige and then back to translucent :). I wish I had the patience to sun bathe, I just can't do it

Years ago I read a book called ‘French Women Don’t Get Fat’. Very eye opening, it basically said they like the finer things in life but only in small quantities. Nothing to excess. So bread, cheese, wine etc is always consumed, just not too much.

French bread is mainly air so not as fattening as our stodgy sliced white.

Probably because they don’t snack between meals and they all seem to smoke.

This is so odd. I am Indian so naturally tanned, but nobody has ever said I look more elegant/ healthy/ slim because of it.😂

Can confirm the people around the beaches of northern France are not so elegant! It must be the money.

What astonishes me as a former smoker is how French women I know are capable of smoking sometimes. They can light up a cigarette after a meal and that's it. And then they won't smoke for a month. It's like they got this amazing discipline with food, alcohol and cigarettes allowing them to have it all without becoming addicted or having too much of anything. Yes, I'm jealous.

Same here - Give me one and I was back to a pack of ten! I would like to know how they manage to make smoking a cigarette look so classy?

I agrée, i am often on the south coast and try my best not to be a sweaty mess and try to work out why many look so elegant. I can’t pull it off. It’s definitely like that where I am. They are taller, lightly tanned, clothes are elegant and well put toghether, sometimes clearly expensive but not always so. It gets a bit less so in high season because of tourists thank god.
My French friends are obsessed with food and especially the quality, many discussions on where the best bread is, best fruit and vegetables etc. DH does the fruit and veg shop and is now the same ( where the strawberries are from, what is local, buys the most expensive, only one type of tomato will do) I can taste the difference though.I’ll always be a short, sweaty mess and accept that while looking on for tips.😀

I love a good old French thread.

I don't know why I clicked on it. Possibly I was hoping it might actually be a realistic one rather than the usual hyperbolic fawning about how chic all French women are.

They don't. They look just as stupid and as anti-social as smokers everywhere. And I'm half French.

They are taller,

French people are not tall, they are similar to the UK.

To me they’ll always look classy 😄

You went to Biarritz. I bet the women were Russian / Ukrainian rather than French. Although a lot of French women also fit the bill of course. That said, I don’t understand why you’re comparing yourself to others, especially others who have different lifestyles entirely.

The french way of speaking and gesticulation is quite elegant imo so that also helps.

Not sure why there is so much focus on women though as French men dress so much better than the average male brit.

I’ve seen some French women in YouTube. It seems that they ignore the ultra processed crap a lot of countries eat. Portion sizes are smaller - even in McDonalds.

Ha - we tend to holiday in the less well off South West coast and people are normal sized. Young French men tended to wear football shorts and fitted t shirts with bum bags slung diagonally across their bodies and young women were all tiny shorts, cami tops or short shift dresses.

Older men tend toward distressed jeans/shorts and t shirts or summer print shirts and women in longer shift dresses or shorts and t shirts. Clothes did tend to be more conservative that people wear in the UK in the summer (lots of muted colours and hardly any floral patterns) and less sunburn. We weren't in a big tourist area, we spotted the only other British family on the beach by the red raw shoulders of the dad.

As for bread it was served with every meal and eaten all the time.