Opinion Divided Over France's Remarkable Title

Monday, 01 March 2010

It is the the most visited country in the world with a whopping 82 million tourists a year

Famous for frogs and fancy wine, the 'land of the Franks' that is situated in Western Europe was cited this month as the best place in the world to live.

The revelation comes from the magazine, International Living. The latter has been analyzing our quality of life for over 30 years now and feels that France still deserves to be ranked the best place in the world to live as it has done for the last five years.  We all appreciate that France has an exceptional health care system but is that  the only reason  it was placed in front of Australia and Switzerland on the poll? Apparently not,  themes like cost of living, environment, infrastructure and lifestyle were also taken into consideration.

“In France, life is savoured”, says the publisher of International Living, Jackie Flynn before alluding to the fact that the working hours are much shorter, holidays are much longer and the whole month of August is off. “I don't think anyone will argue that France is one of the most beautiful countries in the world but the French do love tidy gardens, pretty sidewalk cafes and clean streets”. Quite frankly, she concludes, “cities are well tended with little crime”.

But whether or not you actually like the long, lazy, cheese tasting lunch sessions in perfectly landscaped gardens is a question of culture. “Two hours for lunch”, exclaims Sandor Vida in horror. “Who needs that much time?”, asks the young Hungarian journalist who is currently living in Nantes. According to her, “the French are an arrogant folk that don't really live in the real world, a cold nation that only seem nice when you get to know them”. “And bureaucracy dominates their lives”, adds Barbara Fachall before mentioning how much she misses her native,more sociable, Spain.

On the other hand, Lauren Lipps from America lives in France and loves its. “It is definitely the best place in the world to live”, she starts,  “workers rights are amazing here compared to the US and the French approach to life is the best”.

Not so positive is her Irish colleague, Claudia Headon, “anyone who has ever tried to open a bank account or end a phone contract in France will agree that this is not the best place to live in the world”. Having lived in both the South and West of France, she does however maintain that she would prefer to fall ill in France than in Ireland.

So should we conclude that the International Living survey implies that France is the best place in the world to live only if you are French.  For the half Italian, half Argentian, Emiliano Mellino, there is definitely something missing in France. Apart from being expensive, he feels that it “lacks a social diversity that is prevalent in places like London”.

There are numerous reactions on the French blogasphere. One French blogger is happy feeling that it will stop Sarkozy from always denigrating the French model from now on, but an anonymous expat blogger in Paris offers a more realistic conclusion,  “strolling along the Seine has little to do with the quality of life in France for either the average French person or the average expat”.  Although he loves living in France, he spends more time sorting out tax issues and poor services “than sipping wine in a Parisian brasserie”.