The picture above is presented not merely for your titillation, or to appeal to the prurient interest of my loyal readers. It is intended for illustrative purposes, to show the compulsory swim attire for men at the Stade Nautique de la Faisanderie, the swimming pool adjacent to INSEAD. For reasons that non-Europeans will never fully understand, men are obligated to wear homoerotic bathing suits. I know this, because I dropped by the pool to pick up a brochure and I was politely explained the “rules”. The attendant at the counter provided me with some irrational explanation that the pool fears men will run around and sweat in the Fontainebleau National Forest, and then wear their sweaty shorts in their pristine swimming pool. The solution is to require you to wear a skimpy swimsuit that you would never be caught dead wearing or using anywhere else! (Hint to European men: Don’t wear Speedos when vacationing in America unless you have abs like a Calvin Klein underwear model.) In addition to the “no-bermuda” shorts rule, everyone must wear bathing caps. Go figure a country which is obsessed with the hygiene of swimming pools, but turns a blind eye to dog owners who gleefully fill the streets and sidewalks with merde.
My fitness options now appear to be: 1) jogging or biking in the Forest; or 2) Working out with weights in the INSEAD gym. My inside sources tell me that the dated INSEAD gym is going to be completely renovated in January 2008, thanks to a generous gift from the INSEAD Renaissance Club.
