All that gourmet food, coupled with those slim waistlines, has long stood as one of the wonders of France. No more.

France is getting fat and some lawmakers are worried. On Tuesday, a Socialist deputy filed a proposal to attack the problem through legislation.

Lawmaker Jean-Marie Le Guen said he wants to make the fight against fatness a "veritable goal of public health."

According to Le Guen, 11-12 percent of young children are obese. He said the figure was expected to rise to 20 percent within two decades.

The 10-article text of the proposal filed with the National Assembly, the lower house, proposes "readable and comprehensible" consumer information on the sugar, fatty acids and salt of food and drinks — and would forbid television ads on offending products.

The proposal seeks to impose sanctions for producers of products that go against public health rules as well as for those who advertise them.

The measure specifically seeks a penalty for ads amounting to 5 percent of the cost of the publicity for offending sugar drinks and products.

It calls for a half-hour of daily physical exercise in schools or ensure that each child is weighed by a school doctor each year.

Le Guen did not say when his proposal might be taken up by the house, but stressed that the problem would be "one of the important themes" of the presidential campaign in 2007 for the Socialists, the leading opposition party.

The conservative government sets out the parliamentary agenda but the opposition can sneak their own legislation into holes in the schedule.