Hi everyone,
I have been a French teacher for 15 years, I have left France to live abroad and I often have this conversation with my students about the reasons why they left or will leave their country to come here in France. Of course I have some similar answers but sometimes there are reasons I wouldn’t suspect! What about you?
Living in France is cheaper than living in the UK.
Living in France is cheaper than living in the US.
I came to France for a job.
I see you run French immersion courses in the Pyrenees. That sounds rather nice.
Gawd, for a horrible minute I thought this thread was Part 2 of the rificulous thread about Putin invading us in a massive war 
Seeing that it is not, I am interested in reading answers. For me:
Good standard of living
Cheaper than UK
Not having to wake up in the UK
Top health care
Free unlimited decheterie
No potholes
General cleanliness
Free parking at hospitals
1€ train tickets to Toulouse.
My hates though:
Poor exchange rate forced on me by a portion of UK b’tards.
Excessive malus on cars.
Thank you Helenochka, yes, I like to teach differently from the academic style, and immersion programs allow a lot of freedom in this regard.
I have never had the déchèterie as a reason
I had a mutual ‘Coup de Foudre’ with a French Naval helicopter navigator during a 5 day visit to Dubai in 1997, left the UK 5 months later, married him and am still living in France (though not with him).
I think there is a difference between why one wants to live in France in the first place and why one continues to live in France - for example, we had no idea when we came to France how good the healthcare service would be, but it’s certainly one of the reasons why we stay in France.
We came to France because we were looking for a place in the country to retire to and discovered how much more we could get for our money in France than in the places we were looking at in the UK. We already knew parts of France having holidayed here over the years and we spoke some French, having learnt it at school. Whilst, in fact, Italy was our first love as a place to visit we felt it would be a step too far - no language on our part and some doubtful bureaucracy - and we felt France would be a safer choice (nb: we came 18 years ago, well before Brexit so moving was really easy).
We knew that we were moving to a beautiful country and one with an interesting and varied culture. We had been brought up to believe French cuisine was second to none - Elizabeth David, Robert Carrier cook books - and in fact reality (France Profonde) proved early on to be a disappointment, most restaurants being stuck in a narrow, parochial view of what one should eat.
What keeps us here is the glorious countryside, space, tranquillity and living in a ridiculously large (still not finished) old farmhouse. Plus excellent healthcare. Over the years we have found one or two excellent restaurants (Michelin star) but the food culture would not keep us here (much better in the UK).
Brexit forced our move by maybe 4-5 years early.
Reasons we like France:
Dislikes:
Ditto Sue - while I love France as a place a lot of the practical appeal for me is the much lower house prices!
And the better weather is another factor.
Same here but beware, if you eventually want to return you might find yourself unable to afford it. True for me so a very good job that I will never want to return. 
Our life here evolved from taking a holiday in Brittany,meeting a local Breton ex-french naval electrician who told OH there was a shortage of good artisans so we came back six months later and bought a run down property and OH was suddenly inundated with demands from local people to do works for them which he couldn’t as was not registered. A year or two later, we started over again and I am still here since that first meeting of our breton friend in 1989. OH alas passed away suddenly in 2011 and three and a half years ago I had a new house built down here near Perpignan to be close to my son and his family as 1200kms between us was too much. If my kids had stayed in the UK neither of them would have been through university and gained good jobs like they did with a French full education and to be honest after a week’s visit in July to the UK it was downright miserable compared to here. The weather is much better down here for arthritis sufferers too than damp Brittany but I have wonderful memories of there and some good friends still.
Baguettes.
For me it was more wanting to get out of the UK than wanting to be in France, and this was 20+ years ago. The decision was between Ireland and France. And France won because of being able to access many other countries easily without the problems of a piece of water in between. We can get to Switzerland and Italy in a couple of hours, Germany a bit longer.
Like Sue we have been hugely disappointed with the food here. It has got a bit better but is still quite dull. We could get a much more varied cuisine in the UK.
We agree with the comments on French food. Where we were in the UK we had a wide choice of different nationalities and really liked Indian and Thai. The one Indian in Narbonne really isn’t very good, for veggies at least, but we do have a couple of Thai places.
I miss Greek and Turkish food as well.
It is difficult to find a good Indian restaurant, especially if your definition of good includes having a bit of heat. Having said that, we found a very good one in Montauban run by a group of Tamils. We had quite a good chat and he was quite upfront that there’s not really a market for hotter curries and you really need to ask for it. Nonetheless, their lamb vindaloo was delicious and very well-flavoured.
Lucky you.
We found a pretty good curry house in Antibes this year when we were on holiday, run by a couple from the Punjab. As you say, the food wasn’t hot but it’s the first curry I’ve had in years that I haven’t had to cook so I didn’t mind. Interesting that you have to ask to have the food spiced up, I’ll let OH know.
Couldn’t agree more with you on the food. There are things that are particularly good but no more than any other country and a much better choice of quality, accessible food in the UK. Particularly if you care about how animals are treated and want to avoid poisoning by excessive use of agricultural plant and animal chemicals and antibiotics. It’s accessible in the mass market in the UK but here you have to look for it.
Emblematic of this I find that in terms of pieces of chicken, with the supermarkets here in La France Profonde, the best you get is chicken thighs. Where have all the breasts gone? Have they all been taken by Paris reataurants, Parisians in 16e and 8e and some industrial food manufacturers ? They are simply not offered in the mass market here. (We have no Grand Frais, no hypermarkets, only supermarkets). One has to hunt them out and all the chicken breasts off what’s in the mass market have disappeared - they are never offered. And not just chicken but that’s the shining example.
I would never buy supermarket chicken. The conditions they are reared in are appalling. Le Gaulois is a major brand, but others are no different. Prefer to go without if I can’t be assured of its welfare.