Yup! LES ESTRINGERS...... faut les garder à l'oeil! I think it is really hard for people from more densely populated countries (& generally with a more mobile population as well) to grasp just how rigid & conservative & xenophobic la France Profonde can be.
nail hit squarely on head ;-)
I always remember one of my sisters-in-law moaning because she no longer lives chez elle and isn't from the village etc... she moved less then 10km from the farm!!! I've seen my OH treated as a foreigner too, and that's in HER département!
I do think there is a risk, as a foreign person or indeed a French person from the city, if people move to the absolute isolated depths of the country (of which there are far more in France than in GB simply because of relative size & population distribution) any (esp. educated) person who doesn't speak or live like the locals, especially if they don't have a job people can understand (or if like many British people they don't have a job at all) will be viewed with suspicion (mild at best, acute at worst) in a community where people haven't got much academic education because they don't need it or didn't want to move away, or openness to much beyond their immediate circle, because they don't need that either, & have stereotypical views of the world outside their own immediate circle. Because quite honestly, what do you have in common? Not a lot.
;-)
Thanks for pointing out the errors, the original post has now been edited for clarity......
not sure there are any montpellierains criticising les landes either and what Véro says is true - où qu'on aille il y a des bons et des cons !
Ce ne sont pas les expatriés vivant dans les Landes dont je parlais mais des Landais eux-mêmes - les Landais par adoption ne comptent pas. Et des villages de consanguins (et de cons sanguins) il y en a partout en France et pas que dans les Landes, ça vous va?
And why are you appealing only to female inhabitants of the Landes?