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Europe is Healthier than US - Chris Arnade Walks the World

walkingtheworld.substack.com · 2,723 words · saved by 1 readers

The above picture, from a cafe where I rested after a sixteen-mile walk, isn’t anything special. Neither is the town it’s in, Tournon-sur-Rhône, which is my least favorite of the string of mid-sized and smaller towns I stayed in along the Rhône Valley. It’s a loud town, a result of the old expressway, Route Nationale 86, funneling through it, and France’s love of motocross, which means young men sans mufflers. Yet even in Tournon, on a boring Wednesday afternoon, there was an active social scene, a communal sense of needing to be, if not directly with other people, then at least near them. Tables of friends, colleagues, couples, families, came and went. Those alone, mostly older regulars, came to sit, watch the world, and chat with other regulars and the wait staff. They were alone in name only. They had their place, quiet literally as I later found out when I realized I’d taken the corner seat of a different regular, who I offered to switch with, but they declined with a smile, mutter

Europe is Healthier than US It's just harder to see that, because Americans look in the wrong place. Chris Arnade Jun 24, 2024 635 104 105 Share The above picture, from a cafe where I rested after a sixteen-mile walk, isn’t anything special. Neither is the town it’s in, Tournon-sur-Rhône, which is my least favorite of the string of mid-sized and smaller towns I stayed in along the Rhône Valley. It’s a loud town, a result of the old expressway, Route Nationale 86, funneling through it, and France’s love of motocross, which means young men sans mufflers. Yet even in Tournon, on a boring Wednesda

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