I came across this article, dugg from the Santa Barbara Independent. The confused author claims the French are skinny because they eat slowly and are chatty during meals.
Bull! The French are skinny because they walk!
France (obviously) consists of old cities — cities designed before the advent of personal vehicles. Even Frenchies who live out in the sticks take transit into densely populated cities for work or socializing, then walk significant distances to their end destinations.
Yet again, transit trumps personal vehicles.
kfarr 
True!
You can eat foie gras as slow as you want… it won’t decrease the fat content. 🙂 I agree with you. There’s a lot more walking, more manual labor, and more stairs. Most apartments and flats don’t have elevators, so if you live on the fourth floor, your doctor would be very happy with you. 🙂 That allows people to eat foods that are high in fat, such as cheese, fatback, pate…mmmm, breads, etc. because they use all the energy up.
Dianarn – good point on the apartments with no elevators. Even here in SF, my apartment is up 2 flights of stairs (after climbing Nob Hill for a few blocks). I burn tons of calories just walking back from stuffing my gut!