I’m still not up to full blogging power so another quickie today. I’ve blogged before about the misleading received wisdom that women don’t get fat in France. They do! However, it is true that the world’s skinniest person was French, and he was born on this day, April 10th (although some sources say 17 April) in 1797 in Troie.

There have been several such hommes-squelettes (skeleton men) i.e. adult men of normal stature who weighed less than 20kg. The skinniest of them all was Claude Ambroise Seurat. There isn’t much information about him, but apparently he was a perfectly normal baby and boy up to the age of 10 and no one ever came up with any sort of diagnosis as to why he was so thin. To all intents and purposes he was just a skinny dude who never ate much, just a little bread and wine each day. He died at the age of 28 which would suggest there was some underlying medical condition, poor man.

He made a living from being an exhibit in a fair, calling himself the squelette vivante (living skeleton). His biceps were just 10 cms in circumference, and if he stood sideways, well, he would almost have disappeared, being only 8 cms ‘thick’.

So I for one am quite happy to see France fattening up a tiny bit. It’s much healthier than such extreme skinniness. So, Sarko, I think you should let the kids have evil tomato ketchup with their school dinners whenever they want again. You’d get their votes in the future!