A quick view of all French départements

[woolybanana]

By someone in the Telegraph.

Such a lot to see and discover. Get the car stocked up, people.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/articles/every-french-department/

[alittlebitfrench]

Can't read the article because you have to pay. I am not paying anything to a newspaper that supported Brexit.

Who is this expert exactly ?

And what qualifications do you need to qualify as an expert ?

'Banliue France' is proper France.

Bet that was not in their list.

[NormanH]

Peregrine is a pretentious prat who like to pass as an expert among the 'expat' SPIT brigade..

[woolybanana]

And there was me hoping for a discussion of different départements and I get invective!?

[betise]

I could read it. I don't know when it was written, but he still refers to regions by their old names, and has a questionable view of what is "best".

[Gardian]

[quote user="NormanH"]Peregrine is a pretentious prat who like to pass as an expert among the 'expat' SPIT brigade..

[/quote]

Don’t hold back Norman, just say what you mean.

Actually, as a freshly ordained Frenchman, you have clearly acquired a new talent for insults.

[idun]

I cannot read it either, BUT saying that they were not 'up to date'

with the latest info about french regions is a little 'silly'.

People

will always instinctively call places by the name they are used to. AND

I would imagine that most of my french friends will still be doing so. I

doubt that most will be that interested in saying for example....

GrandEst, rather than Champagne or Alsace/Lorraine, which are actually

more precise if one is talking about places. 

What this person's tastes are, is quite another thing, and recommendations are just that, they like somewhere or don't, and 'I' for example may not be of the same avis.[Www]

That is places, if say I read a hotel is dirty, then I would take someone's word for it, I think that it would also be silly not to.

[alittlebitfrench]

99% of Brits will live in France where it is cheap. That is rural. And they build there little enclaves...ordering food from the UK.

The French want to live in town/city.

Me...in town/city.

Am I ALBF...yes.

[woolybanana]

Far too many sweeping statements, ALBF, as usual. Actually, many of the recent incomers to my village, that is over the last ten years have moved out of the big cities, including Paris, because they want a better quality of life for themselves and a better environment to raise their kids.

[idun]

We moved from city to village because it would be quieter / calmer and more chance of good day- time sleeping due to shift patterns.

Now, I could never live in a village or in the country, again unless I was filthy rich and had staff and a helicopter etc.

Interesting you saying that about people leaving towns /cities for their kids Wooly.

Friends of mine moved to a big town, because they lived nulle part in a tiny hamlet and then they had kids and did not want their kids brought up in the village schools in their area, amongst the paysannes whose life expectations were restricted. And the local college also had next to no expectations for their pupils either. She knew this as she had worked at the nearest local college.

Population density simply shows how property prices will be in France. Next to no one there, young ones leaving for work = cheap property, and bought by les etrangers without a thought of all these things, I would imagine.

And when we moved to France, these deserted places were discussed on french tv quite regularly in very dismissive tones. So 25 years later, when people we knew were so excited about moving to the Ariege from the UK and how cheap the housing was and how much land, my thought, was, who on earth would want to live there. See the french things rubbing off on me.

[Lehaut]

Different strokes for different folks. We lived for 21 years in a small village in the heart of Manche, full farming community. The village school was at the bottom of our garden, the local college (260 pupils) a bus ride away. We too were concerned that our two boys (who started school there) may be constrained by the local lack of ambition. Met a teacher who worked in Granville and asked her about this. Her emphatic advice was to stay where we were! In the big towns, only the poor pupils worn clothes of "marqué" she told us as they beat up the other kids to steal them!! That was enough for us. We stayed put (for their schooling/FAC period) and have never regretted it. Local "peasant" schools worked extremely well for our two, plus their parents peace of mind.

[idun]

I think that this would depend on the nature of the petit bled perdu one lives in.

Our friends had lived there for quite a long time before having their family, so as well as her teaching at the nearest college, knew the locals and area well. They would never have stayed there. And were delighted with where they moved to and the schools.

You have me thinking about thefts etc, frankly when my boys were in college  I had not heard of that happening.

However, there are quarters in some of the cites where I would imagine that it could.

And the only poor kids I knew of who had designer things were because their mothers took great pride in having their sons and only the sons, dressed in such things. My friend who worked for the Secour Populaire was always appalled, especially as this was at the expense of food on the table.