7They are all fit and thin
Another funny misconception about the French is that they are all fit. No, France is not in the top ten countries with the most obese people, they are 13th. Which is still pretty high. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), around 1 person in 10 is obese and 40% of the population is overweight. Again, if you stay in a posh part of Paris, you probably won’t see a lot of overweight French women or men. But if you get out of the wealthier neighbourhoods, you’ll probably start noticing more and rounder, French people. Unfortunately, obesity is more and more common in most parts of the world.
8They are all great intellectuals
Are these stereotypes about French people positive or negative? You might have heard of a couple of famous and very intelligent French intellectuals and French writers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Simone Weil, Voltaire, Michel Foucault, etc. Yes, these men and women are all incredibly intelligent and are French. But this doesn’t mean that every single French person is a great intellectual. You just have to watch some of these French reality television series to find out that there are some pretty dim people out there… They do teach philosophy in high schools and some people are very interested in politics and current events but like in any country, don’t expect everyone to be the next Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
9They are lazy
This misconception is one of the worst ones because honestly, everyone should do like the French. The French work 35-hour weeks instead of 40-hours like in most countries. They also have long vacations, at least 5 weeks every year. We should be more like them and work less. The French aren’t lazy, they are very clever! They don’t over exhaust themselves by working long hours and having no vacation, they have a great balance between work-life balance. So yes, stereotypes about french people can actually be great news.
