Paris - The epitome of Gallic beauty, French film star Catherine Deneuve -- probably clouded in a haze of cigarette smoke -- once scoffed at the idea of working out, saying: "I am not American."
But in recent years the country which produced reams of analysis over former President Nicolas Sarkozy's love of jogging has rapidly caught onto the idea of what is known in French as "le running".
Nowhere is this more evident than in Paris where, as the spring sun emerges, so have hordes of runners thundering through leafy parks and even the streets -- where anyone trying to jog would once have been immediately identified as an American tourist.
"It's true that the French are slightly behind Anglo-Saxon countries on the need to get themselves in shape," said Thomas Godard, business unit manager for sports brand Adidas in the country.
But the company has noted "a genuine explosion of running in France," where it is the fastest-growing segment of the sports market with double-digit growth.
A recent study ordered by the French Athletics Federation (FFA) showed 9.5 million citizens -- roughly one in five adults -- run "more or less regularly," the body's president Bernard Amsalem told AFP.
All over the world running has undergone somewhat of a revolution in recent years.
No longer the sport of an individual male loping along in a faded tracksuit perhaps aiming for a marathon, it is increasingly a group activity accompanied by fashionable, brightly coloured clothes and high-tech smartphone accessories and applications to track your progress.
"Today running has become what we call a 'hit' sport, it is trendy," says Godard.
AFP
