« La marche, c’est la vie »

« La marche, c’est la vie » is a slogan Jean-François repeatedly invokes to make Bénédicte continue exercising. Although phrased as a general encouragement to stay active, it becomes a rule applied against her own reports of pain, fatigue, and physical vulnerability.

The Slogan as an Instruction

Jean-François cites the slogan of a shoe brand aimed at older people and tells Bénédicte to take it as an example. He uses it while proposing walks or laps around a stadium whenever she says she is in pain, presenting exertion as a way to maintain her fitness and overcome what he regards as a sickly state. He also insists that her symptoms are psychological and that she should stop taking them into account. The slogan thus works not simply as advice about walking but as a compact expression of his refusal to accept her bodily experience as evidence.

A History of Physical Risk

The command carries particular weight because Bénédicte has previously fainted during one of these forced walks. Emergency responders took her to hospital, where she was found to be close to a pulmonary embolism linked to thrombophlebitis in both legs. That episode did not change Jean-François’s position: he continued to treat her pain as psychological and exercise as its remedy. The earlier medical emergency makes the repeated slogan sharply incongruous with the consequences of the exercise he demands.

The Cotentin Hike

During a later holiday in the Cotentin, Jean-François again insists on a long walk despite Bénédicte’s severe back pain, fatigue, and pain in her legs and joints. She tells him she does not feel able to complete the hike, but he remains inflexible. She walks for a week in considerable pain, crying as well as complaining; Lola eventually takes her father’s side and blames her mother for spoiling the holiday. Bénédicte seeks medical help after the second day, and a doctor prescribes painkillers for lower-back pain and recommends that she consult her general practitioner after returning to Metz.

Significance

The slogan’s force comes from the gap between its broadly positive sound and its use in these particular circumstances. Jean-François makes walking a test of Bénédicte’s strength and treats her objections as something she should overcome, rather than as information about her condition. Repeated in the face of a past emergency and present pain, the phrase becomes part of a pattern in which his judgment displaces her own account of her body.