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LIVING IN FRANCE

The six ‘best places to live’ in France (that you’d never consider)

Forget the likes of Paris, Bordeaux and Lyon, these unheralded towns and cities offer more all-round joie de vivre.

The six 'best places to live' in France (that you'd never consider)
A fountain enlightened in pink is pictured overnight, in Angers, western France (Photo by JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD / AFP)

France is well and truly spoiled when it comes to beautiful cities, so much so that many villes that aren’t that glamorous often get completely overlooked.

But bland can be beautiful in the land of Molière, and a recent survey that looked at the best places to live, points to just that.

In 2018, the French weekly news magazine L’Express ranked French towns and cities (except Paris) according to factors such as hours of sunshine, cultural offerings, air quality, student population, access to healthcare, safety, proximity to the sea or mountains and property prices to work out just where the best places to live were.

As of 2024, the team at The Local still found these recommendations to hold weight.

Their findings may have you coughing up your pain au chocolat, or at least rethinking where you’d like to move to. While Rennes in western France topped the ranking we have focussed on the the next six cities in the ranking.

Limoges 

Limoges, listed as a Ville d’Art et d’Histoire, it’s the birthplace of French painter Renoir. It’s located in central western France just off the motorway that links Paris to Toulouse in the south west.

Travel guides on France might skim over Limoges as a place to visit, but that may be to its residents’ benefit.

The once porcelain capital of France is now a bustling student city of 139,000 in the central department of Haute-Vienne, and L’Express noted that it ranked highly on its quality of life survey.

Angers 

Despite its moody sounding name to English speakers, by most accounts Angers is a bustling, happy-go-lucky city with loads to offer.  

Steeped in history from its days as an intellectual hub in the 15th century, the city has a rich cultural offering of museums, festivals, art galleries and medieval chateaux. It also serves as the gateway to the splendid Loire Valley, famed for its gastronomy and natural beauty.

The Lonely Planet has praised Angers’ ‘cafe culture’, noting the 42,000 students that call the city home. It’s also just over one hour and a half by train from Paris or three and a half hours’ drive.

L’Express ranked it as the third place to live in France in 2018. That clearly has not changed, as it ranked in first place in the 2024 edition of the ranking of towns and villages in France ‘where life is good’, published by the Journal du Dimanche.

Clermont-Ferrand 

Back in April 2016, The Local ran a feature that laid out 15 reasons why Clermont-Ferrand is the best place in France.  It was written by a proud former resident who was sick an tired of the ciy being overlooked an it caught the attention of many Clermontois who modestly admitted their city was great but not the best. 

Surrounded by ancient volcanoes, Clermont-Ferrand has a majestic twin-turreted cathedral, loads of fountains and squares as well as 18th-century mansions made out of volcanic stone. It’s also ideal for nature lovers with the Parc Naturel Régional des Volcans d’Auvergne a short drive away.

As Lonely Planet puts it, “Clermont-Ferrand is a hub not only for business but cuisine, with plenty of restaurants serving modernised cuisine auvergnate, and culture (in the form of fizzing art, film and live-music scenes).”

L’Express ranked it in fourth place, and more recently in 2023, the real estate platform Maslow put it in first place for ‘the best places to invest in (existing) property’.

Brest 

Brest won’t win any beauty contests, that’s for sure. It was quickly rebuilt in a rather functional manner after being almost fully obliterated by bombs during WWII, but that did not stop this port city in Brittany from taking fifth place according to L’Express.

So what’s there to love? Well if it’s sea you’re after, this coastal city on the West Atlantic is known for its amazing aquarium and sailing competitions, although the waves can get fairly choppy. 

What’s great about Brest is what’s surrounding it – there are several islands, such as the Île d’Ouessant, that you can visit directly from the city. Enjoy hiking, or just take in the gorgeous sights from cliffs to sandy beaches.

Lonely planet has called Brest “big, bold and dynamic” but maybe it’s the unassuming attitude of the city’s 139,619 inhabitants that make it the perfect place to live for them.

Saint-Etienne

It is easy to spend a few days in Lyon without considering a trip to Saint-Etienne, which often goes unnoticed.

Formerly known as France’s main armaments manufacturer, this industrial city has smartened up its centre and suburbs over recent decades and is reinventing itself as a design city, including an impressive museum of modern art.

And its old town, as with many towns and cities in France, still has plenty of charm. It’s split by two rivers – Le Rhône and La Saône – and made up of narrow streets, decorative buildings and quirky shops.

Lorient 

Another city in Brittany that made it into the top ten most livable spots in L’Hexagone (maybe it’s something to do with living by the seaside?).

In Lorient’s case though, it’s possibly a more obvious choice than for its Breton brother of Brest. This small city has lovely white sand beaches with waves big enough to draw in surfers, a fantastic bay to stroll around, picturesque countryside just outside town and a well-preserved old town. 

You can also take an easy ferry ride to the Île de Groix from Lorient.

In August, Lorient plays host to a huge Celtic festival, which draws in thousands of Celtic communities from around Europe. 

Would you live in any of these places? Let us know in the comments below.

Member comments

  1. Yes. We live about an hour from Limoges. Lovely area to live. Quiet and clean. Limoges has its areas of high crime (ask locally), and these are well-known, but mainly it’s a handsome city with fine architecture, good facilities and pleasant people.

  2. Boulogne sur Mer – my home town and fishing capital of France and 30 minutes from Car Shuttle and Calais Ferries should also be on your list IMO

  3. I love Sommières, in Gard Dept. It’s peaceful & beautiful. And it has a lot going for it. But it does not have a train station. (Apparently, that was decommissioned years ago, the station building now serving as a lovely hotel.) Sommières is a slice of heaven and Nîmes and Alès are not far away.

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LIVING IN FRANCE

5 tips to have the best possible night at France’s Fête de la musique

It can be the most fun day of the year - when France goes music crazy and bands suddenly appear on every street corner - but there are some tips to make your Fête de la musique experience as good as it can possibly be.

5 tips to have the best possible night at France's Fête de la musique

First, a caveat – this is an entirely personal manifesto based on the things that I have enjoyed over my Fête de la Musique outings over the years. It’s not intended as any kind of hard-and-fast rule and plenty of people will have different experiences.

Feel free to disagree and/or share your festival tips in the comments section below!

1 Ignore the big-name artists

There are always a few big-name artists or concerts in major venues on the Fête de la musique (which happens every year on June 21st).

Ignore them. Sure, stadiums gigs can be great and huge venues can have a wonderful atmosphere – but you can do that any night of the year. It’s not what Fête de la musique is about.

The true spirit of the Fête is the smaller acts who play on street corners, in bars and community venues. They’re free, you can wander between them and stay as long as you like – and there is always something else around the corner.

2 Ignore the big towns

You might think that the big cities have the best music, but if you have the choice, go for a small town or a suburb.

I’ve enjoyed some good Fêtes in Paris, but the best experiences had have been smaller towns or the Paris’ suburbs (Montreuil is good – a commune that carefully cultivates a small-town / village vibe, albeit a very diverse small town where everyone is a hippy, a leftist, or both).

It’s partly a practicality thing – in big cities the acts are spread out and you have to make plans to see something and meet up with friends. In small towns, you just wander along to the main square, then when you’ve seen the acts there, you can saunter up the side streets, each of which will have dozens of bands playing, pausing only to grab a beer and snacks.

But it’s also the vibe; in big cities you can hear good live music all the time and the population is consequently complacent – small towns truly appreciate the Fête de la musique and properly go wild.

Once, in Paris, I was watching a blues band play in the street when a woman tipped water on their heads from her apartment window because she was tired and wanted to go to sleep. Small towns appreciate it when bands play for them.

3 Experiment

There’s a lot of variety on the night, so take advantage – this is your opportunity to hear all kinds of live music from rock to swing, jazz to classical, choirs to DJs.

Didn’t think that a five-piece oud band is your thing? Fête de la musique may change your mind. It’s the night of the year when anything goes, musically, so it’s also the night to try something new.

If you hate it – well it’s free and there’s another band down the street that might be more your thing. But you might discover a lifetime passion for oud music – in fact, by this time next year you might be playing in the oud band. Thanks to the Fête de la musique.

4 Don’t insist on quality

You’ll hear some great bands, but you’ll also hear some that are more about enthusiasm – and that’s all part of the fun.

You’re going to be hearing everything from classic rock to reggae to blues to the above-mentioned five-piece oud band, and as well as the styles the quality may be variable to.

For me, the true spirit of Fête de la musique is the 50-year-old accountant rocking out on his guitar and enjoying the one night of the year when he can dream that if only he hadn’t given up on his high school band, he could now be rich, famous and selling out stadiums, as opposed to filing tax declarations in an office above the florist.

5 Dress comfortably

Some people like to dress up for the Fête and that’s great – it’s a party after all – but the key thing is to wear something that is comfortable and allows you to shake your stuff.

Yes, you will be dancing – you’ll be dancing on street corners, in parks, cafés and perhaps on street furniture if things really get going, and you’ll be dancing with kids, dapper 70-year-old gents and everyone in between.

You need comfortable shoes and clothes that you can really move in.

Dance like no-one is watching. They may be watching, but they won’t be judging. Much. It’s Fête de la musique.

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