# Do French People Really Rarely Bathe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036 "2017-08-29T16:10:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/21 "2017-08-29T21:00:37Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > I misread the title and saw do the French rarely breathe? :smack: I then thought are the French more likely to be zombies? :eek: Or amphibians. :p;)😛 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/22 "2017-08-29T21:07:52Z")
> [@Trancephalic](#): > > Or amphibians. > > :p;)😛 Boo! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/23 "2017-08-29T21:09:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Is it possible that Americans are more likely to use deodorants/antiperspirants than the French? My memories of doing business in France was never to leave the meeting room unless you intended not to return. Otherwise, be prepared for the bombshell when you came back through the door!! Uh, what? Could you explain? ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/24 "2017-08-29T21:11:14Z")
On the topic of smelling different: Doesn’t diet affect one’s smell? I’d expect the average American diet to differ from the average French one so that statement may be true. Also, since smells one is used to tend to fade into the background and no longer be noticed, it’s possible that being surrounded by people who have a different body smell than the odor one is used to would result in perceiving others to smell more; Not because they actually do smell more but because they smell different because of diet. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/25 "2017-08-29T22:55:14Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Uh, what? Could you explain? I assume that the French waited for the American to leave before they all passed gas. But then that’s not the point of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/26 "2017-08-30T17:41:00Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > And I was right ! I was mainly thinking of the horses and the breweries and tanneries which Edgar Allen would pass when half-cut, etc. etc.; but apparently Baltimore has a special place in the history of smell — just like then-contemporary London, and oddly enough Cologne City — As immortalized by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: > [@](#): > > _In Köhln, a town of monks and bones,  > And pavements fang’d with murderous stones  > And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches;  > I counted two and seventy stenches,  > All well defined, and several stinks!  > Ye Nymphs that reign o’er sewers and sinks,  > The river Rhine, it is well known,  > Doth wash your city of Cologne;  > But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine  > Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?_ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/27 "2017-08-30T20:30:49Z")
The only grooming thing I ever noticed when I lived in Europe was the apparent indifference to deodorants. I haven’t lived there since 1995, so perhaps that has changed. I lived in three different countries and traveled to almost every country in both eastern and western Europe, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/28 "2017-08-30T22:08:51Z")
The principle is that if you noticeably stink you should wash yourself using soap and water, not try to cover it up using perfumes and deodorants (which seems to have been a historical technique belonging to more primitive, smellier times
) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/29 "2017-08-30T22:14:03Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > The principle is that if you noticeably stink you should wash yourself using soap and water, not try to cover it up using perfumes and deodorants (which seems to have been a historical method dating back to more primitive, smellier times
) I’ve pretty much never used deodorant my whole life. Just take regular baths. (I may occasionally use anti-perspirant, though) Nobody’s ever noticed an issue with it to my knowledge, and I have friends who would not have any compunction in mentioning it to me (my wife, in particular, would have no problem telling me.) If you bathe every day, I doubt that most people will stink at all, unless you’re sweating your ass off, but then you just take another shower. It’s gross being sweaty and smelling like perfumed sweat. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/30 "2017-08-31T14:23:30Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I assume that the French waited for the American to leave before they all passed gas. > > But then that’s not the point of the thread. “Il est parti. Dieu merci - je peux peindre maintenant.” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/31 "2017-08-31T18:18:43Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’ve pretty much never used deodorant my whole life. Just take regular baths. (I may occasionally use anti-perspirant, though) Nobody’s ever noticed an issue with it to my knowledge, and I have friends who would not have any compunction in mentioning it to me (my wife, in particular, would have no problem telling me.) If you bathe every day, I doubt that most people will stink at all, unless you’re sweating your ass off, but then you just take another shower. It’s gross being sweaty and smelling like perfumed sweat. We’ve had this discussion before. You may be one of those people who have reduced body odor. But what you say is not true for most people, except in some places like Japan where the vast majority have a mutation that greatly reduces the pungency of body odor. I know I personally can start to smell something within a couple hours if I don’t use deodorant, and by half a day if I only used deodorant and not antiperspirant. And if I can smell myself, it must be worse for others. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/32 "2017-09-01T13:06:59Z")
Define “rarely.” I’m serious. France doesn’t suffer from any hygiene-related health problems, so you’d have to say the French bathe plenty often enough from that standpoint. But like many societies, they bathe less often than most Americans. Each side looks at he other and wonders “What’s wrong with you?” Why are you so dirty/ obsessed with showering? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/33 "2017-09-01T16:26:02Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > But like many societies, they bathe less often than most Americans. That actually does not appear to be the case from recent surveys, put whatever faith in them that you wish. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/34 "2017-09-01T19:23:43Z")
All I meant was that, IF the French (like my Irish relatives) shower 4 or 5 days a week (rather than daily), that’s still not unsanitary or unhealthy. The difference between daily showers and semi-regular showers is really a matter of preference, rather than of health. ---
**Author:** ![Pippers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b5a626/32.png) [@Pippers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pippers)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036/35 "2017-09-01T19:47:48Z")
All I know is that the Irish and French men that I have met smell like body odor. Not stinky bo underarm, but a very definite body odor that I did not like. And yeah, what you eat affects your general body odor. But I’ll take the scent of cologne any day over that smell of bo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-french-people-really-rarely-bathe/795036.md?page=1)