A Side Note-French Gyms!

Recently I travelled to Europe for a few weeks and needed a few days cross training in gyms over there whilst in training for the Auckland Marathon.
I had heard of course that French women were renound for never breaking a sweat but I didn't expect it to be so true!!
I visited two gyms, one in Paris right in the city and one in Uzes-a small village in Provence. In both cases I encountered startlingly few women. In the Paris gym there was a grand total of one and the men in the weights room looked utterly shocked as I ventured through the doors away from the cardio equipment.
In terms of the quality of the gym, I paid 22 Euros for a casual pass (very standard over there) and it was of about the same calibre gym as the University of Auckland Gym- functional but no frills. There was an entire room dedicated to cardio, plenty of equipment there, a separate room for weights and another couple of bare rooms for classes and paired sports. Fans were the apparent form of ventilation- I was there in summer and it was incredibly warm inside!
The gym in Uzes ('Cocktail Tonic' it was called) was much smaller with only one treadmill, a couple of cross trainers and bikes and the standard free weights and bench equipment. I paid 9 Euros here, the staff were very friendly and engaging. The space was small but sufficient and what I would have expected for a small village. Once again the gym was filled with men and excluding myself I saw one other woman. One of the men seemed so surprised in fact he approached me to shake my hand simply for being there- most amusing!! Very warm again but sufficiently ventilated for the time of year.
Other than these gyms I visited the gym facilities in all of the hotels we stayed at, they were very useful and of the same quality as could be expected from 4-5 star hotels in NZ. I found these essential when travelling especially when I had to do my long runs and didn't know the streets or felt unsafe running alone in a foreign country.
Running in France was also a different experience. Whereas in NZ most runners will exchange a smile or wave, I was not acknowledged at all on the streets there. There were also noticeably less women running in general.
The summer heat was a challenge, even more so in Italy and Hong Kong where even in the early hours of the morning temperatures had already reached those expected in the height of summer in NZ.
Hong Kong was incredibly humid and almost impossible to run in- stepping out of the hotel produced an sheen of sweat on one's face along with grit almost instantly on the skin...ideal place to have an air conditioned gym!