French view of top districts to live

[woolybanana]

The implication is what I don't like; that there is something worng with this;

And yet another immature gybe at the British, excluding the millions of French, Belgians, Dutch, Germans and others who also find France agreeable.

By the way, I suspect that there are many Brits here who are not so well off and who are suffering too. They just keep quiet.

[mint]

[quote user="woolybanana"]

By the way, I suspect that there are many Brits here who are not so well off and who are suffering too. They just keep quiet.

[/quote]

Quite right, Wools!  Nary a quiver in the upper lip.....[:P]

[woolybanana]

A quality I value still, rather than the public snivelling that has become fashionable.

[Gardengirl]

We're in 57th place. A large majority of the people we know here are French, although there are many nationalities living here - from all over Europe, USA, NZ etc. I guess most of we incomers chose here because it's beautiful, gets a lot of sunshine and has many other attributes which make up a great quality of life. Things cost rather more here than in the nearby city; I do wonder sometimes how many of the people who live and work here manage.

[NormanH]

[quote user="woolybanana"]

Or, they have already earned their pension or accumulated money in other ways, mainly legal. And who have maximized their ability to have a reasonable life by coming to France where they do a lot to support the local economy. 

So, hardly shielded.

But then the same can be said for the legions of retired or wealthy French couples who might have got state pensions for very short careers, having never really worked in their lives.  

[/quote]

How they accumulated their wealth has nothing to do with the fact that their money insulates them from the need to live where they can find work.

just johns comments about the French caring less about the 'quality of life ' (a phrase I have never understood) shows that for him there is no need to earn a living, which for me would have been one of the first things I would look at in deciding where to live

The cheap jibes are all coming from those who weren't invited here,and who seem to have forgotten the needs of ordinary people

[woolybanana]

No, Norman, but at a certain age people have the right to expect not to work if they have worked and saved hard or, if working for much of government, not worked or had to save.

You came to France when you were younger and, I think, set up and ran a successful business, but someone retiring from, say, the British Council at 60 after a tough life in foreign parts, broken in health and spirit after holding up the British cultural model before the natives, might reasonably not explore the possibilities of opening up a second career.

By the way, were you invited to France?

[NormanH]

Of course not, but I don't judge the French because they want to live somewhere they can find a job.

There is appalling colonial condescension in the idea that it is only the English who choose where to live because of the "quality of life"

If that wooly idea doesn't include the idea of being able to make a living it is even more meaningless than I suspected

[idun]

Ah that thing quality of life. How does one judge it. I have said many times that there is not way I could live out in the country again, anywhere. For me that would be diminishing the quality of my life considerably. And yet it seems to be the dream of many.

Certainly the village I lived in was full of working french people. We had a factory and factories in nearby towns and then there were a couple of cities within half an hour on the motorway, so there were places to work. And that is the reason that I have friends from all over France as they moved to that region to work.

Had a conversation with a workman chez moi today and he was asking why we had moved back from France and the conversation got around to 'how cheap the property was in France'. Endless times I say that it is only so cheap as the french who had lived in these regions had had to move elsewhere to find work leaving property that appeared to be 'cheap'. Now inflated by a non working market, perhaps?

The oddest place I have ever been to in France in mid summer was Ernee in the Mayenne. Full of Papy and Mamie and petits enfants, not really any adults aged 25-50 around. Judging by the place/area, I summised that the youth had had to move on for employment.

We weren't exactly invited to France, but in fact husband's workplace had to employ so many british so we had a sort of invite. However, I always considered that I was a guest in someone else's country.

[just john]

[quote user="NormanH"]  just johns comments about the French caring less about the 'quality of life ' (a phrase I have never understood) shows that for him there is no need to earn a living, which for me would have been one of the first things I would look at in deciding where to live The cheap jibes are all coming from those who weren't invited here,and who seem to have forgotten the needs of ordinary people  [/quote]

Cheap jibes indeed Norm, not that your jaundiced remarks could be construed as such, I'm sure your bitterness will bring you much happiness. As for invitation, most French vendors seem delighted to invite the English to buy their semi-derelict property .

Allow me to correct my comments since you have quoted me out of context:
[quote user="just john "]Which goes to show that for the English, desireability is more about quality of life and less about the ability to generate a family supporting income and vice vrsa for the French, does it not?[/quote]

[quote user="cooperlola"]  Norman has a point - even if it's one he makes rather more than is necessary to hammer into our thick skulls!  Because of the healthcare and immigration rules and the difficulty of non-native French getting jobs here, I suspect that the majority, if not a large one, of Brits here is retired and has an income above that which makes social security concerns and employment pretty irrelevant. Thus our requirements for a place to live are bound to be a little different and somewhat skewed.[/quote]
Any retired English or French in urbanised areas generally live in areas where accommodation is more expensive than that in rural /coastal/mountain areas suitable for retirement.
And the majority of English, I would surmise have retired, traded down or sold-up and taken advantage of lower property costs in Rural areas here to live.

to reverse my quote demonstrates that the former require urbanisation whereas the latter are mostly retired living off pensions/savings etc
for the French, desireability is more about the ability to generate a family supporting income and less about quality of life and vice versa for the English does it not?

(Incidentally some French friends recently retired and sold an apartment in Tour so that they could buy a Maison Maitre less than hour of Le Mans for the purpose of a Chambre d'hote).

 

[Pommier]

Quality of life means different things to different people, and different things at different ages. When we were younger and wanted decent jobs, nightlife etc we lived in a city (but thought we'd like to live in the country with lots of land).

When we moved to France we lived the rural life, but eventually decided that wasn't really what we liked as we prefer the convenience of town with plenty going on (and the beach!).

Everyone makes ther own choices and compromises, but hopefully eventually can afford not to need to make too many compromises.

10th place for us

[cooperlola]

Funny, Idun, because I looked at a couple of places near Ernee and I agree - very odd place, didn't take to it much.

My situation in terms of housing is very similar here to the UK (half an hour from vibrant large town and ten minutes from a bustling village but in the middle of nowhere) but consumption in the UK was far more conspicuous than it seems to be here.  That has nothing at all to do with rural versus towns.

Don't you feel though, that Brits are much more inclined to commute than the French seem to be?  Most of the people in the area of Kent where we lived spent a minimum of two hours getting to and from work.  Those who could afford the houses had to work in  London to earn enough and the staff who manned the supermarkets/hospitals and the like lived out of the area where housing was cheaper.  The majority of the staff at the rehab' unit where I go here, for instance, live no further than 20 minutes away.  Thus jobs and housing availability seem much more closely linked here.  Is this just an impression do you think, those of you who live and work and/or were born here?

[woolybanana]

You are quite right, coops. House agents say that there is a maximum or about 20 minutes that French people will commute.

[idun]

A twenty minute commute was to our nearest city, the biggest in the area was 30-40 mins+ away and an awful lot of folks from our village did it everyday. Including my neighbour who worked for Carrefour, just sorting out kids clothing, I asked why she didn't transfer to the Carrefour nearest to the village, but she said that she would have lost her anciennete.

[Loiseau]

QUOTE "woolybanana"

You are boasting loiseau, because the Vendée is near the top for people of a certain age!

END QUOTE

Actually, Wooly, I thought it had rather slipped down the table for the retraités this time around.

Must be due to last winter's storms and floods... :-((

Angela

[woolybanana]

They are still building though, but perhaps not in the underwater zones;

[renard]

My understanding of the article is that the results are not obtained by how people have voted. If you look just below the four boxes (showing the top three results), and just above the collage photo, there is a link entitled "Cliquez ici pour decouvrir notre methodologie detailee". This then gives the following explanation (translated using google):

"Our survey is based on 40 indicators. Almost

all of them has been gathered from official sources: National Institute

of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), ministries, etc.. The same year was systematically selected for the 96 departments.

For each of the 40 indicators, departments were classified according to their results, from first to last place. A coefficient was attributed to each indicator according to its importance. The classification multiplied by the coefficient leads to a note.

The

different grades were summed within each category (culture, economic

power, healthcare services, etc.). 14 rankings for topics.

To develop the ranking general, subjects were simply added together. The

rankings "young", "families" and "seniors" have, themselves, subject to

specific weights, depending on how important a particular topic is in

the eyes of the relevant class. higher education appealing more to younger than older, more concerned with the provision of care. Lack of comparable data, the overseas departments have not been studied."

So it would appear that the results are nothing to do with where people would like to live, and what they have voted for, but arrived at by L'Express's criteria of what they perceive to be important.

As such I feel the results are not really a good guide to an overall 'best place to live'. Which might explain why a lot of people here are surprised to find their department further down the list than they had anticipated.

[NormanH]

But surely people have clicked on the link at least for their own department, to see its position in all those areas?

If not I can't see any interest in the site.

It is in fact a 'quality of life' survey with the criteria explained clearly  (accessibility of certain shops, life expectancy, income etc all clearly indicated)

[Kitty]

So you all need to move to my departement - Gironde (33)....  Gironde has the ocean, the golden beaches, the forests, Medoc wine, Bordeaux....  Fifth overall and third if you are young (which I am - possibly, depending on which of my children that I ask [Www] ).

What good judgement the "criteria-setters" had.  Nothing at all wrong with this survey.  [:D]

I feel sorry for the Ardennes coming last - what is wrong with the place?  My father-in-law fought in the Offensive there.

[just john]

And the pate's not bad either

[idun]

We spent a week of our holidays in the Ardennes in 1999 to see the eclipse.

Wasn't a place I would think of returning to at all and the rain. I thought we got tropical type rain in the Alpes in summer, but the rain we got there was as bad as I have seen in a named tropical storm in Florida, only 'cold'. We couldn't actually see past the windscreen of the car at one point as the rain hit, (windscreen wipers on full!) And that is frightening, especially as something flying hit our car.

No idea as to whether it is always like that there, although my neighbour said it often was.

Cathy how hot does it get in summer in the Gironde?

[woolybanana]

The Ardennes is very beautiful with a character entirely of its own, BUT, it is both wet and cold. To be avoided after Xmas for three months or so.

The food however can be out of this world, particularly at this time of year; try the sanglier, game birds (not Martha from Charlevilles, Norman, she is raddled with something other than lead, so I am told!), pâté and jambon.

[idun]

Now in that region, one of my favourite bits of Europe is just to the east and I'm not quite sure if it is the Belgian Ardennes or called something else, but it is between Liege and Bastogne. I just love it there.

[woolybanana]

Yes, Belgian Ardennes

[cooperlola]

[quote user="idun"]Now in that region, one of my favourite bits of Europe is just to the east and I'm not quite sure if it is the Belgian Ardennes or called something else, but it is between Liege and Bastogne. I just love it there.[/quote]Agreed.  Stunning spot.  We go to Spa every year and have started spending longer and longer in the area each time we go and exploring further afield.  There are times when we have been quite tempted to live there but it's a bit cold for all year round.You can keep the seaside!

[idun]

Mid December, terrible snow and the route we had planned to take to visit our son who was working in the Eiffel region of Germany was blocked. We followed the deviation signs and ended up in on a racing track, and it was Spa. Very odd the way the road blended onto the track and we felt like we should not have been there and were glad when we peeled off it.

The seaside, I now live beside the seaside, I grew up near the sea and it was the one thing I really missed living in the Alpes for so long. I am very happy to see the rough old North Sea every day!