Let's Get Physical!

My fitness team

After about seven months of spending all of our time driving, or sitting on a cheap sofa in a gîte or AirBnB we decided it was time to finally get back into something like physical shape. Unlike the North Shore, where there are gyms on every corner, France isn’t really into the whole fitness thing. After ruling out the L’OrangeBlue chain because of the number of stocky, musclebound goofs coming out after two hours of crashing bar-bells into the floor, we decided to try Air Fitness Alencon.

And yes, that’s them in the photo. Four smart, motivated, and friendly people who do everything in the business, and do it well.

The first thing that I noted was a client mix that trended towards women, and a lack of the usual gym guys that dominate the atmosphere and the space.

The second thing that struck me was that all of the motivational posters on the walls featured women, not men. It also is fascinating that every woman photographed has a pony-tail at the peak of an arc over her head.

On the other hand every time that we’re using the bikes and weight machines the TV monitors seem to be playing 90s music videos. Dear God, what an era for pop music. What an era for mullets on men. What an era for really, really unattractive women’s clothing. And for a stream of female singers that I honestly can’t name, or even really distinguish from each other.

And of course, endless Michael Jackson.

The one thing missing from the mix is French music, which seems odd, although not entirely surprising. On the other hand there’s also a complete lack of the Canadian 90’s video staples that we’ve all seen far too many times.

The other thing that really surprised me, and which drove home the point that we really have been immersed in France and French culture, was stepping onto a treadmill and struggling to figure out the controls for a good three minutes before it dawned on me that all of the buttons were labeled in English.

Yes, my brain was reading them as French….