Why are French old people so convincing?

Question

When you go to most developed, first-world countries, you find that most elderly people these days are spry, alert and active, and are looking forward to their next holiday in Spain, etc, etc. Yet in France, they are really, convincingly old, and dodder about getting in everybody's way in the supermarket, drive at 25mph, never go anywhere, don't want to go anywhere, smell odd and dress in a peculiar style reminiscent of French labourers in World War Two films.

Why are they like this, when in Britain or Germany or the US, they are more... actively with it?

Answer 1

No it's not true at all, it depends on the people. Some are very active and some others are not. Though, they are indeed less obsessed with getting old. And WE DO SHAVE ARMPITS! :) I'm French!

Answer 2

They are happy, healthy and out to impress nobody.  And, unlike UK (can't speak for US or Germany), they are valued and respected within the community.

Answer 3

How old is your mother ? Who are you ? Who pays you ?

Answer 4

I find french women very well kept and chic.

Answer 5

Utter nonsense! I am 102 and surfing the net and French...and tomorrow I'm off to the supermarket to roller-skate between the aisles to fill the shelves...then on monday, I'll be in Switzerland cheering the French football team on, then back to my second job on tuesday morning (feeding the lions in a zoo) and I'm not as active as my next door neighbour who is 107... and with whom I play golf on the rooves.

Answer 6

France ranks pretty well for life expectancy, so those you see looking that old are probably in their 90's and still independent when those that make it to this age in the US have to rely on walkers and scooters.

I once made the remark to my mother who's French about seeing a lot of older men with younger women in France. It turned out that the women I thought were 40 were actually in their early 60's so they were about the same age as their husbands. The fact is that women age incredibly gracefully and naturally in France.

It is true that in rural France (where my mom's family is from) older people are not obsessed about looking artificially young with ridiculous-looking facelifts and badly dyed hair or glow-in-the-dark bleached teeth. But they are fit and healthy, my 86-year-old grandfather can still bend and kneel and garden and carry wood and walk without the help of a stick and he is more intellectually alert than many 20-year-old wannabes who are half his age.

Edit: I continue because I got interrupted earlier. You are comparing with northern, protestant, mostly industrial European countries. Old people in France look no different from old people in Italy, Spain or Greece where people are still in touch with nature and the land. As for the US, people dress like 5-year-olds at any age (I didn't make this up, just quoting an American journalist), which when you are in your 70's only makes you look like a degenerate clown. And unlike you British people, yes, the French don't travel abroad (is Spain really "abroad " to English people anyway? I mean the Costa del Sol is 100% British) because they have everything they want in their own country (which is why your fellow countrypeople go to France and buy property there). And thank God the elderly don't wear those silly hats favored by English old ladies or wear baby-blue trousers up to their nipples like in Britain and America. So yes, older country people may look their age in France (how bizarre!) but at least they don't look ridiculous...

Answer 7

Shaving armpits and slapping on a bit of lippy only works for the shallow, and as french poetry is the most renowned, depth is their "forte". Vive la vive enfant.

Answer 8

OH !

Paris and the rest of France.

Rest of France = "France d'en bas".

Bravo !!!!!

You are disrespectful.

And it's false : old French can be active in Paris and in Province !

Answer 9

I have been to other developed first world countries and in the countryside they have old people who look old too, really, convincingly old, and dodder about getting in everybody's way in the supermarket, drive at 25mph, never go anywhere, don't want to go anywhere, smell odd and dress in a peculiar style reminiscent of labourers in World War Two films..

Thank you so much for insulting our grand parents.