Yet in spite of that, the latest survey of French people asking them where they would like to live showed a clear preference for life outside the city. “When it comes to urban areas, medium-sized cities and towns are much more attractive than cities with 200,000 or more inhabitants". For Rouban this “lack of local services" in rural areas hasn’t produced “any hostility towards the countryside". READ MORE:In fact, it’s big cities that are seen rather as "destinations imposed on people by their offer of employment or their educational resources”. However, rural areas (communes with fewer than 3,500 inhabitants) didn’t rank high when it came to public transport availability, access to cultural services or places that promote socialising.

Source: The Local October 24, 2019 08:00 UTC