Hi Mark…
London is densely populated and multicultural … but not where I would choose to live… although I know folk who are very, very happy there…
Likewise Paris and many other cities…
As is so often the case… it all comes down to personal choice…
Are you accusing the President of the Republic of being politically correct? Don’t they send you to the guillotine for less? 
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I was more talking about the ‘Brit’ thing.
One thing that fascinates me on Expat French forums is how many British people living in France complain about the British. They say that there are are “too many Brits in my village” or there are “NO” Brits in my village (like they are making a statement) or they say “slowly brits are arriving” with a yellow sad face. I
Why not move to the Vosges ? Like mentioned earlier, there are only 169 registered British people living there. The chances of you living near a British person in the Vosges is practically zero.
I wouldn’t move to the Vosges because it is the far East and North for a denizen of the Côte d’Azur like me and much much MUCH too far away from the sea. Climate-wise the Vosges (same climate as SW Baden-Württemberg where my parents live) isn’t at all like SW Dordogne (where I live, about as far north as I can cope with) it may be comparable in summer but NOT in winter, for’a start winter is about a fortnight long here and it rarely gets below about -2°, in the Vosges I’d be stuck to the Kachelofen for about 3 months if not longer. But what do I know, eh, not being an expat.
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Ha ha Mark… I have no sad face… I am very glad that my French neighbours outnumber all others… so that the French way of life continues on its merry way…changing slowly, as all things must… but at a leisurely pace… and in its own style…
Sadly, in some areas where British tend to outnumber all others… I have noticed that the French- way-of-life seems to be pushed to the background… while British pursuits and tastes seem to get pride of place… but that is their choice and certainly not mine.
I don’t buy into this climate thing anymore. Over the last five-ten years it is really down to pot luck what your weather will be like in any given region of France.
I only speak of the Vosges because one side of my OH family are from there. I tell you it is flipin hot in the summer. In the winter, is it really colder than than other parts of France ? I thought Auriac was the coldest place in France and many British move to the Corrèze. More so than the Vosges so that argument does not stack up.
That’s it. It’s not the number of Brits that matters, it’s the type of Brits - there’s the type that adapts and integrates and gets absorbed into local life and you wouldn’t know they were there, and there’s the type that doesn’t.
I wouldn’t want to live in a place that had lost its Frenchness, but that’s because the place itself would be unlikely to attract me, not because it was full of English or Dutch or whatever. Subtle difference. The point of moving to France, for me, was because I felt a kind of affinity with the French mindset and customs and culture, so it would have been a bit perverse to choose to live somewhere in France that didn’t offer that.
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I think you mean Aurillac in Cantal?
Yes that is it, the one that is always on meteo France every night for being the coldest place in France.
We moved to France to discover my French family roots…and live the life…
When I was little, my grandma would always arrive with “specialities” in her luggage, bought while visiting her parents in France… and she would regale us with tales of her childhood in what was, to us, a magical land…
France has not disappointed me… maybe it’s not magical (at my age) but it is still a fascinating, exciting and great country to live in.
Sadly, I’ve never managed to find the delicious sweets that I recall so well. I’ve searched everywhere …wanted some for my grandson. Thought my memory was playing tricks, but when I describe them to elderly French folk…they do know what I am talking about…seems they are just not available any more.
When we moved over, in the general chaos with boxes everywhere, I found a bottle of grandma’s cologne… I opened it…and I could swear she was there in the room with me…
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Sweets… that brings back memories… When I was quite tiny we used to spend holidays with friends who had a farm in Seine et Oise, a department that no longer exists. I remember I used to get bought little lollipops from the shop in the nearest village, and when you took the wrapper off it sometimes said Gagné (I think) on the inside, and if it did, you could take the paper back and get a free lollipop. They used to let me go in by myself to get my free lolly, J’ai gagné was one of the first things I learned to say! That’s nearly 60 years ago but I still remember how excited I got when I won. Innocent days
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My sweets were fruit & veg…really tiny examples… carrot, tomato, onion, potato, green-pea, cherry, banana, orange etc…beautifully detailed and coloured… in crunchy sugar. Each one was a delicious miniature work of art !
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Aurillac isn’t the coldest place, I’ve worked there and lived in the cantal (Aurillac is the préfecture of the Cantal, in the Auvergnen not the Corèze in Nouvelle-Aquitaine , the weather station is way up on the hill behind Aurillac and so the data is misleading, same problem for Millau too. Langres is colder and the climate is very different to that of the Dordogne
I have been watching TF1 meteo for the last 22 years and Aurillac is the coldest place in France.
Ask anyone.
I bet it will on tonights meteo as well…
mon pauvre on t’apprend des choses et t’écoutes rien ! (tongue in cheek before you explode!) that’s because they only take readings for a few reasonable size towns, equiped by météo france, and this gets locals well up in arms about this myth - I had the head of tourism in the Cantal as one of my stagiaires and this topic drove him mad! I’ve been watching TF1 weather for a couple of decades too, it’s OK, but not the most complete picture either. Yes they nearly always cite Aurillac (although others cite Langres as the coldest. In fact the prize goes to Mouthe in the Doubs or if the weather map featured only larger towns it’d be Grenoble.
…and as for Aurillac, here it is from the horse’s mouth:
_Eveline Dhéliat, présentatrice et responsable du service météo de TF 1 et LCI, comprend la polémique : « J’ai déjà expliqué les raisons à l’antenne. En fait, c’est mathématique ; on perd un degré tous les 150 mètres. Aurillac est à plus de 600 mètres et c’est la seule ville de la carte à cette altitude, ce qui fausse le débat. Si on avait Chamonix par exemple cela changerait la donne mais Météo France ne nous fournit pas cette donnée ».
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Told you…just saw the metro.
Aurillac will be 11 degrees in the morning. Sorry, coldest place in France for Parisians 
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According to the meteo… we have had storms all day today… and yet… not a drop or a rumble… we have had wonderful sunshine…finally a shower just after 7pm… and back to a lovely evening with sun just settling in the West…
Surely we all know to take these forecasts with a pinch of salt…
Majorca used to use the weather station on top of the airport building… which is why their forecasts bore little relation to what was actually received at ground level…
Pour les Parisiens, tout est dit…
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When I was coming over to France in the early 90’s to see my girlfriend (now wife) I would have join in the family ritual of watching the TF1 meteo then the TF1 news and then eat. I always remember Aurillac being one of the places they speak of when doing the forecasted temperatures on the meteo. Nantes 20 degrees, Paris 21 degrees, Lyon 25 degrees and Aurillic 13 degrees. The next day some other cities and then ending in Aurillic. Auriillic always being the coldest.
Fast forward 23 years, and Aurillic is still mentioned. Last night it was the same and tonight it will be there again. Aurillic will be the coldest place in France. In 20 years time it will be the same.
Why do they talk about Aurillic when doing the meteo. Is it a french tradition ??? Hardly anybody lives there !!!
I think if they dropped Aurillic people would actually write in and complain.
So yes, Aurillic is the coldest place in France. Even if it is not.
And don’t get me started about the ‘grand depart’ !!! That is another wired tradition for TF1.