A lot of things can happen in a minute. 1.3 gallons of blood will be pumped through your body, 243,000 photos will be uploaded to Facebook, 5,441,400 pounds of garbage will be created, and you will read approximately 300 words of this blog.
There are 43,200 minutes in the month of September and I’ve spent a good amount of those minutes actively learning and exploring, not solely converting oxygen into carbon. In the past month, I’ve walked more than I thought possible as well as learned more about the French environmental perspective than I thought I would. Turns out Angers citizens don’t just tune into the Nature channel for a dose of Mother Earth, they actually go out and interact with it! Revolutionary France, absolutely revolutionary.
Just a (Fit)Bit of Fun
Upon making the decision to study abroad, I made the mental commitment to truly immerse myself into the experience by participating in the culture and customs of where I would be living. Within the first hour of moving to Angers, I had a crepe in my hand and love in my heart for this picturesque place. How lucky am I to be able to call this town home until December (to answer that- immeasurably). Angers is the former capital of Anjou and was constructed near the 5-mile long Maine River. Its rich history provides a look into a lost lifestyle, most citizens adopting a tranquil and slower pace going about their days.
Angers, France
During the first week of school, this became overwhelmingly apparent. Scattered across the city there are pubs that are constructed so half of the seating is arranged outside facing the street. I found this odd at first… thinking well why would you want to watch people rush from errand to errand, talk on their phone, or hastily go about their days? Turns out not every city is just like Dallas, Texas and people are greatly influenced by their immediate environment. Here in Angers, it is common for adults to take daily strolls, have a mid-day cup of tea lasting an hour or two while reading a novel or watching other peaceful adults stroll around.
The notion that people are greatly influenced by their environment was corroborated in my FitBit data when my heart rate decreased from a daily high 80s-90s to 60s-70s. This could also be attributed to increasing time spent outside sitting, eating, or working outside in natural spaces. In the center of town there is a beautiful garden where I have seen is often the social hub on days where the weather is nice. I believe the French are more in tune with their natural surroundings and preach A Sand County Almanac’s thoughts- “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” (Leopold) I found myself on weekends ending up either under shaded trees or sitting in grassy areas with a seasonal apricot pastry.
Polaroid pictures
Angers versus Paris
During the weekend of September 18, 19, & 20, a group of the study abroad students planned our first excursion to Paris. We took a night train and arrived a little after 10 PM, so we did not do any sightseeing until the following day. The obvious distinction between Angers and Paris is the flow of global tourists, Paris being a destination that attracts people from all walks of life maintains a city with upcoming transportation technology. Bikes that can be rented and returned at another bike station anywhere in Paris have popped up in the last decade.
Overlooking Paris from the Eiffel Tower
Workout Culture
There is a huge variance in how people exercise here versus in the U.S. Growing up close to downtown Dallas, Texas, I have grown up with the preconception that working out solely took place in a gym. It wasn’t until I moved to Austin for college did I realize there was a whole other dimension of fitness and health the included the immediate environment and not just studio gyms. Angers is somewhat similar to Austin in the aspect of health conscious individuals working out outside. However, in Angers it is not always separate entity, people do not plan to go on a run as often, they walk everywhere. In Texas, people’s main mode is cars and here that is still somewhat true, but most of the population relies on walking for their daily activities. “The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.” (Thomas Jefferson) As older French cities were constructed prior to the industrial explosion involving a great amount of cars in towns, it becomes a necessity for a great portion of the citizens to participate in foot traffic rather than vehicular. This has added something to my days I can’t quite explain, taking a minute to really be in the environment, not stressed over future problems and in tune with the moment.
I asked some of the locals where people usually go to workout and what the culture is like and they responded saying that not many people will regularly maintain an exercise routine like we do in America. Often in the states people will tend to have their favorite genre of workouts such as spinning/cycling or running or yoga classes; while in France that is a foreign ideology. I myself have been a runner for a few years now, so naturally I asked if people run here and where- and people responded saying some people do, a common place you see joggers are on the Cathedral’s steep steps jogging a few times up and down them. I made a point to jog the steps on more than one occasion, yet only once did I see more than a handful other joggers on my route.
I am so used to being surrounded by people who are a part of a strict workout regime and pressuring others to do so as well, while in France it would appear that simply does not exist. However, the flip side of health of over-consumption of fast foods does not seem to exist either. Often times my friends and I would indulge and go eat double cheeseburgers and shakes from Whataburger, but feel bad about it and go to a yoga class or run the next morning. This see-saw ideology of making up for what you’re consuming does not thrive in Angers to my knowledge. Moderation in diet is weaved into this town as much as beautiful architecture and gardens.
I plan to hold interviews to further examine this phenomenon, by talking to more locals as well as the employees at the one gym I have seen in Angers. In addition, I will monitor my own health as I live in this different workout and health culture, hopefully being apparent in my fitbit data.
Bibliography:
Nelson, Graham. “Here Are The Amazing Things Your Body Will Do In The Minute You Spend Reading This.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
“Angers | France.” Encyclopedia Britannica. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
Leopold, Aldo, and Charles Walsh. Schwartz. A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There. New York: Oxford UP, 1987. Print.
Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. 18th ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. Print.
Bess, Michael. The Light-green Society: Ecology and Technological Modernity in France, 1960-2000. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2003. Print.