For five years running France has scored top place in International Living's "Quality of Life Index". In January 2011 they slipped to fourth place, but this is still a remarkable achievement from an index of 194 countries :
"Its tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world’s best health care. France always nets high scores in most categories. But you don’t need number-crunchers to tell you its bon vivant lifestyle is special. Step off a plane and you’ll experience it first-hand.Romantic Paris offers the best of everything, but services don’t fall away in Alsace’s wine villages…in wild and lovely Corsica…in lavender-scented Provence. Or in the Languedoc of the troubadors, bathed in Mediterranean sunlight.
Provincial French properties are often keenly priced and lifestyles are less expensive than Paris. The Southwestern Midi-Pyrenees region is a particularly good hunting ground for village homes for less than $100,000—and classic three-course lunches for $14. Houses cascade with wisteria blossom; outdoor markets are everywhere. Foie gras, pink garlic, Armagnac, and crystallized violets aren’t gourmet fare for locals. Rather, just another day’s shopping." - ILM
The French Economy
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in France expanded 0.40 percent in the third quarter of 2010 over the previous quarter. From 1978 until 2010, France's average quarterly GDP Growth was 0.49 percent reaching an historical high of 1.60 percent in June of 1978 and a record low of -1.60 percent in December of 2008. France is the second largest economy and second trading nation in Europe. France, as with many modern industrialized nations, has a large and diverse industrial base. Economic growth rates in France have been steady for decades due to conservative planning of the economy which in comparison to other western European countries is more centralized by the government in France. - TEcon
