20 Best Cities/Towns of France to live & work

Here are for you 20 of the best towns of France where it’s good to live & work:

A little thing about Paris & Ile-de-France

The capital is an amazing place to be, especially if you’re from outside of Europe.
However, in the last few decades many French workers (cadres) have began to massively quit Paris & Ile-de-France.
If you are moving to France because you went there on travels and find the country expensive, try towns & cities like Toulouse, Bordeaux or Dijon.
The metropolises experience multiple issues with Safety & Transportations systems.
Same for the other large Metropolises, such as Marseilles.

Most of the Cities/Towns in the following list offer services & amenities comparable to those offered in metropolises.
Culture & Education are central policies, they all host a least 1 State University and in most cases private schools (‘Ecoles supérieurs’).
They all hold a Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, large-scale hospital linked to a university.
The transportation web is consistant & performant.
Real estate is reasonable & infrastructures are good.
Safety is also more sustainable assured, since they are less populated & the amount of agent per citizen is higher.

Environmental condition are superior to most of the country, wherever it is air quality carbon footprint, or low amount of hazardous industrial sites.
Waste management is greener & Cycling is becoming the norm.
The use of concrete is limited.
Again, transportation is more modern & more up to date to the newest policies in terms of sustainable Urbanisme.
The TGV lines are dispatched to connect to airports.
The 4G cover is good.
The transition to 5G has began.
Real estate is reasonably priced, wherever it is rental or buying.

Culture & Entertainment, including restoration, are on par with those of metropolises.
Education is the prior public policy, there’s a large choice of high schools & Universities.
It is easier to access to a general practitioner, a dentist, or other specialized medical practitioners.
Safety is assured, with access to many Police stations & Gendarmeries bureau.
Every one of them has at least 1 Precinct, and most of them have more than 3.

Construction/Civil engineering & Real Estate are 2 of the biggest sectors that attract people creating a snowball effect: more people in, more buildings & roads needed.
Subsequently, Industrial & Retail Real Estate tend to see their prices rapidly diminish even if they are still consequent.
The same effect has not be witnessed yet on Office real estate, where Teleworking is an advantageous alternative.

There are more High-Tech companies than anywhere else in the country, compared to the number of inhabitant.
This enhances the development of sectors such as Web/Mobile development, Digital marketing & Graphic Design.
This encourages the implementation of Teleworking in companies.
There’s a large number of students & specializations are diversified, so are career paths.
Young Bachelors & Masters degrees owners find a job easily.
R&D is rising.

Most of the population is well-off & consumption rate is high, wherever is domestic or from tourists.
The number of hotels is high.

The top city of western France in term of Life Quality.
Almost 90% of Rennes inhabitants recommend their city to a person willing to move.
- Housing is inexpensive.
- Transportation may become more congested as Rennes becomes quite popular.
- Atmosphere is great with high environmental quality, and a very clement climate.
A welcoming Employment market in most sectors.
- Dynamism is high relatively to the rest of the country.
Cost of Life is low to medium depending on the district you live in.
Entertainment is diverse, and parks are plentiful.
- Museums, Art galleries & Cinemas are promoted by the inhabitant and many value offers exist.
- Restaurants & Snack bars are on par with those of metropolises.
Services are responsive & Infrastructures are of high quality.
- The City possess a CHU & multiple Hospitals.
- The University is one of the city’s pride.
- Education is 1 of Rennes top strengths.

Lyon may be a tricky 1.
It quite a large metropolis, developed & presenting some issues of the larger metropolises (traffic, safety, pollution).
Even so, more than 80% of its inhabitant would recommend it to someone willing to move.
Another city with such high recommendation ratio is Strasbourg.
Strasbourg is an eastern France city, rapidly developing, close to the German border & highly integrated in the European development.
Meaning that the Lyonais (Lyon’s inhabitant) are highly confident in the attractiveness of their city.

It is still considered 1 of the best alternatives to Paris is you want to live in a metropolis.
Wherever you are a domestic or a foreign investor.
Multiple European & International have installed a division or a subsidiary in Lyon.

Lyon is a large metropolis which knows how to adapt to remain attractive.
Not as much as the emerging cities & town but more than the other metropolises.
Many entrepreneurs & experienced professionals, especially foreigners, may want to turn to Lyon for bigger businesses opportunities.

Unemployment is very low.
Buying power is very high.
This is partly due to the fact that a consequent wedge of its population is working in Swiss where salaries are globally higher.
Other Cities/Towns by the German/Swiss border function on a comparable model.

This capital injection tends to rise Real Estate’s prices but also population creating to the aforementioned snowballing effect.
So, we may see a rise of the Construction sector in Annecy in the upcoming years.