Thin stereotype is just not true

GIVE me a break. When will the silly Brits and Americans stop hitting themselves over the head with this "beautiful thin French woman" nonsense.

You forget to mention that many thin French women smoke to avoid eating - yes, let us be dead thin.

I have lived in France for 30 years and only have to look around at the Normandy markets to see supersize women - or are they all British?

Why are the clothing stores full of teeny sizes whilst the larger sizes jump off the racks?

Why do McDonald’s open burger joints in France as fast as they can build them?

I could go on, but the French are big too, they just pretend they are not.

Janice Gregory
By email

Sorry, but arrêtez de dire des conneries about French women being chic and svelte. Go to any supermarché and you will not find many well-dressed folks of either gender.

My wife and I live in the centre of a triangle formed by Carcassonne, Narbonne and Perpignan.

It is Mediterranean territory, so presumably the women enjoy a Mediterranean diet. Men also. Well, we see as many big bums and large ladies and gentlemen as one is likely to see anywhere.

As to being chic, do me a favour. This may seem as if my wife and I are anti-French.

Believe me this is not the case; we have lived in France since 1981 and have not been back to the UK in that time.

We like France, we like the French, Vive la France (and l’Angleterre) but please no more about French women being any more chic and svelte than anywhere else - except les Parisiennes, of course.

W.T. GRANT, Lairiere, Aude