A fat Frenchman

I was surprised to read an article recently about a morbidly obese Frenchman named Kevin Chenais (from Ferney Voltaire, near Geneva) and his difficulties in finding someone who was willing to transport him.  Firstly, let me say that although virtually every Frenchwoman is effortlessly dainty and perfect, there are exceptions to the rule.  There is also a bit of sexism in attitudes to people being overweight in France.  We rightly view it as being normal for a woman to have an impossibly perfect and dainty figure, but if a man is overweight, it is regarded as a sign that he is living the good life, Gérard Depardieu being a famous example.  Ok, Gérard Depardieu has renounced his French citizenship, though I am pleased someone has made a protest against high taxes on successful people such as myself.  As for me personally, I don't find it at all attractive for a man to be overweight, unless the weight is on account of him being extremely muscular and he has nicely ripped abs.  I cannot understand who on earth would find it attractive for a man to be overweight, but anyway.

The situation with Kevin Chenais is that he has been disgustingly obese since childhood (supposedly on account of health problems *cough*) and, aged 22, found himself with few travel options (apart from his mobility scooter).  The US train system transported him from Chicago to New York's Penn Station, following his treatment for his condition at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (presumably he travelled by train from Rochester to Chicago, I'm not sure).  When in Nuu Yawk, British Airways refused to fly him and eventually, Virgin Atlantic agreed to fly him.  However, his travel difficulties didn't end there.  Eurostar refused to transport him, citing regulations requiring them to be able to evacuate everyone in the event of an emergency (Kevin Chenais and his mobility scooter fell afoul of this).

I also suspect that his enormous weight would have caused havoc regarding some of the other technical requirements.  Rolling stock boffins will be aware that Eurostar's current trains (shown above at Ashford International station) have an articulated design, meaning that rather than two bogies underneath each carriage, (most of) the intermediate carriages instead have a Jacob's bogie between them (therefore meaning there is an average of a little over one bogie per carriage).  Because the weight of the carriages are spread between fewer bogies, it is necessary to make the carriages shorter (I also wonder if the end-throw imposes some requirements, but I'm not sure how to find this out in a hurry).  Given that Eurostar's trains are under these weight constraints, I suspect that carrying this disgustingly obese man as a passenger would have put one of the axles over the axle load limit of 17 tonnes, tee hee!  Shown below is a Jacobs bogie on a Spanish RENFE 101 Series on the Euromed route (they were converted to S100 units for the Madrid-Seville line and the Euromed route is now covered by S130 trains).  These were a French creation and they look set to run on French soil again, as next month, RENFE plans to introduce them for the Toulouse-Barcelona, Lyon-Barcelona and, best of all, Marseille-Barcelona routes.  These were supposedly delayed on account of homologation issues, but I think the reasons are political: - RENFE doesn't want us out-competing them on the Barcelona-Madrid line (their most profitable one) with our economies of scale (the double-decker TGVs can hold over 1,000 passengers when two are coupled together).

I love the way Eurostar's trains are designed around dainty Frenchwomen!  The standard class seats are regarded by fat British and Americans as being too small, though even an impossibly dainty Frenchwoman such as myself enjoys the luxury of lots of space in first class, even if the décor is very dated (though it is currently being refurbished by Pininfarina from what I recall).

Above is an on-board Eurostar meal.  I wouldn't touch the main course personally, as the Lincolnshire sausage is too British for me.  Some people criticise the French for indoctrinating their people to believe French is best and only French is sufficient quality, but I am delighted that we have the wisdom to teach our people such things.  I recall travelling companions from Anglo-Saxon nations bleating about the dainty nature of the on-board meals, e.g. the single packaged Malteser-esque sweet ("the lighter way to enjoy chocolate", MDR): - they complained about the wasteful nature of packaging a single sweet like that, but a Frenchwoman knows that packaging sweets individually is a trick one can use to make less seem like more.  Added to that the fact that Maltesers are very light as they are mostly made up of air: - a large part of eating less is using culinary tricks to make your mind think you are eating less than you are.  As for me, I took on even fewer calories, as I wouldn't touch it, given that the chocolate used was less than 60% cocoa!  MDR!

Anyway, back to Kevin Chenais.  I think he looks absolutely disgusting and I think he is an embarrassment to our great nation of France, which is famous for its women with dainty figures (such as myself), but whose reputation could be under threat by some disgusting looking pig who eats so much that he requires a mobility scooter and oxygen.  Obesity in Anglo-Saxon nations is, dare I say it, in some way, understandable, given that Anglo-Saxon peoples, in their monstrous ignorance, do not know the things that Frenchwomen know.  However, being obese in France is absolutely inexcusable, given the wisdom that French women just happen to know.  Kevin Chenais, shame on you!