Gyms here are pretty different than the ones we’re used to in the US, especially our beloved Sportsclub that we went to in Greenville.  They are typically a lot smaller and have older equipment and have “no frills”.  Unlike many gyms in the US, the gyms here don’t have a child care center, so I wasn’t able to join a gym until Makenna recently started going to a nounou (nanny) part time.

I decided to go to the gym that was about a 2 minute walk from our apartment so I would have no excuses not to go, even if it’s cold or rainy!  The thing I am most surprised about is that there are many hours during the week that nobody is working at the gym.  BUT, if you pay an extra 15 euros for a badge, you can use the gym even if nobody is working.  Crazy!  One Sunday afternoon I was literally the only person in there…nobody was working and nobody else was working out.  It was great!  They are very smart about it though…in order to get in you have to swipe your badge for the door to unlock and then you have to scan your fingerprint to get a turnstile to unlock.  So not only do they know exactly who entered the gym, you can’t just show up with 10 of your friends and let them in.

The other interesting thing is they don’t usually have personal trainers, but usually have “coaches”.  The coaches will basically give you a workout plan but they don’t work out with you and motivate you like a trainer would.  For me, I love this because I don’t have to pay anything for a world champion bodybuilder (yes you heard me right) to write out a full workout plan for me.  The gym I go to is owned by this guy (and no he’s not quite this huge now but he’s still probably the most muscular guy in France):

And in true French style one of the fitness posters features a naked couple, so you can have a lovely image to work out to when you want to get your cardio on:

Another thing that is different at the gym here is people say hello and goodbye to everyone.  This is probably partly because the gym is small, but in the US nobody really greets anyone else that’s working out unless they know them.

They do have a lot of the Les Mills classes that we’re used to seeing in the US, so that makes it feel a little more like home 🙂

Thankfully we are living the city lifestyle here and rarely have to drive.  We walk almost everywhere and sometimes take the tram.  But of course we have to leave our little bubble sometimes and take our little Citroën C4.

Driving really isn’t too horrible, as we don’t have to worry about driving on the opposite side of the road or have the steering wheel on the other side of the car.  And South Carolina has reciprocity here which means we don’t have to take a driving test.  But there are definitely some things to get used to and times where we have no idea how an intersection works, what a street sign/signal means, or if we should even be driving where we are driving.

The first thing to get used to is the stop lights are on the side of the road instead of hanging above you.  You really have to pay attention in some areas otherwise you can blow through a red light and not even know it!

The second major difference here is there are a TON of roundabouts.  This makes traffic flow smoother since you don’t have to sit at a red light.  But there are times that you don’t know which lane you should be in, people are entering the roundabout when they shouldn’t, or you’re not sure which exit your GPS is telling you to take.

Speaking of GPS, sometimes I will come to a weird intersection and the GPS will say “take the 2nd left” and I’m looking at all the streets around me to figure out which one is the 2nd left….or the GPS will say “bare right” and there are 2 streets very close to each other and you’re not sure where you’re supposed to bare right.

In other cases, there are just some things I don’t understand…like a blinking light or an intersection where there’s no stop sign or stop light and I have no idea when I’m supposed to go or how the traffic flow works.

So, with all this said, my motto for driving here is:

JUST GO BUT BE PREPARED TO STOP