France voted Best Place to Live in the World
Goodbye Freedom Fries, Hello Pommes Frites!
Why France is best place to live in world
By Daniela Deane for CNN
February 11, 2010
London, England (CNN) -- Bindi Dupouy, an Australian living in Paris, and
her French husband, just had their first child, a son born in the country.
Dupouy, a 28-year-old lawyer, got almost five months paid maternity leave
from her company for the birth. She can take another seven months off
beyond that -- a year total -- unpaid, if she wants, with her job
guaranteed under French law.
When her son Louis was born, healthy and by way of a normal delivery, she
got to stay in her local French hospital, around the corner from where she
lives, for five full days, to rest.
Welcome to France, voted the best place in the world to live for the fifth
year in a row by International Living magazine, which has been analyzing
data and publishing its annual Quality of Life Index for 30 years.
One of the reasons France keeps winning the ranking is its world-class
health care system, which Dupouy just experienced first-hand.
"They treat expecting mums like treasures here," Dupouy told CNN from her
Paris apartment. "They take really good care of you. The health care system
is just amazing." She said she wouldn't have gotten the same maternity
leave -- or care -- back home in Australia.
At her job, Dupouy also gets seven weeks paid vacation a year, although
it's her first job as an attorney since graduating with a law degree in
Australia. She doesn't think twice about taking the Metro across town --
for just $1.37 a ride -- to visit a friend. Or she picks up a rental bike
at one of the many computerized bike hire racks in town to get around.
France scores high marks across the board in the survey, which is done
every January, from health care (100 points) to infrastructure (92 points)
to safety and risk (100 points).
"No surprise," said the magazine in its report. "Its (France's) tiresome
bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of
life, including the world's best health care."
"The bread, the cheese, the wine," Dan Prescher, special projects editor at
the magazine, told CNN, when asked why France just keeps on winning year
after year. "That weighs pretty heavily in quality of life."
Prescher admitted the magazine had an "American bias" since the vast
majority of its subscribers are Americans spending in U.S. dollars. "France
is one of those golden places in the American consciousness," he said.
The annual index ranks 194 countries and comprises nine categories: Cost of
Living, Culture and Leisure, Economy, Environment, Freedom, Health,
Infrastructure, Safety and Risk and Climate. The Index analyzes data from
several official sources, including government web sites, the World Health
Organization, and several media sources.
Following France in the top ten are Australia, Switzerland, Germany, New
Zealand, Luxembourg, the U.S., Belgium, Canada and Italy, in that order.
"France always nets high scores in most categories," the magazine said.
"But you don't need number-crunchers to tell you its 'bon vivant' lifestyle
is special. It's impossible to enumerate the joy of lingering for hours
over dinner and a bottle of red wine in a Parisian brasserie. Or strolling
beside the Seine on a spring morning, poking through the book vendors'
wares."
Other European countries slipped a little in the magazine's rankings this
year, with the exception of France and Germany. Britain dropped to 25th
place from last year's ranking of 20.
Variety is also seen as a major factor in France's appeal, with the survey
noting that "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."
The United States dropped from third to seventh place in this year's
rankings, largely because of the grinding economic crisis last year.
"Sustaining the American dream has escalated out of the reach of many," the
magazine said.
"The depression hit the United States and Great Britain hard," Prescher
told CNN. "That weighs down the ratings."
Of course, France too has its problems. The country suffers from high youth
unemployment, particularly among the disaffected young people who live in
its equivalent of the projects, known as les banlieues.
Late last year, the French government opened a national discussion about
national identity, which has evolved into debates over whether immigrants,
and particularly Muslim immigrants, are French enough. The country has the
highest Muslim population of any European country, with an estimated six
million living in the country.
But for the most part, French people enjoy a good lifestyle. International
Living says that during their large chunk of leisure time, the French enjoy
visiting the country's many beaches and Alpine ski resorts.
Dupouy -- like more famous expats Ernest Hemingway and Julia Child before
her -- agrees.
She and her husband vacation every year at the seaside near Bordeaux, in
the southwest corner of France, where her husband's family has a home. They
also go skiing in the Alps during the winter.
She says that even if she and her husband decide to leave France for awhile
during their lives, they'll always come back -- every year, probably.
"The culture, the food, the family, it's all just really nice here," said
Dupouy.
lab~rat >:-)
Pommes Frites!" <bonjou...@aurevoiramerique.lol> puked:
>http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/index.html
>
>Why France is best place to live in world
The coneheads were from France, weren't they..?
--
lab~rat >:-)
Do you want polite or do you want sincere?
wy
> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:50:56 -0000, "Goodbye Freedom Fries, Hello
>
> >http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/in...
>
> >Why France is best place to live in world
>
> The coneheads were from France, weren't they..?
France beats Florida any day, any hour, any micro-second. The people
can be a little snooty, but they're no worse than crass New Yorkers.
You just have to have the smarts to know how to deal with them. You
do know what smarts are, don't you? Apparently not. All you can
think of are coneheads.
mikey
pond to happen because last night I fell asleep at my girlfriend's pad.
seastew
<bonjourfra...@aurevoiramerique.lol> wrote:
> http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/in...
Once again, the majority of the best places to live are socialist
countries.
x...@xxx.com
French people are happy in france, it isn't the best place in the world
to live unless you are french. The muslim influx is unhappifying the
french by the day. There will be more French immigrants here in the
coming years.
On paper france has the best of everything for its citizens, unless a
citizen want to start his own business, save some money or own and rent
property. Since everything in France is skewed towards keeping the
citizens happy it takes 6 months and costs nearly a year's salary to
fire someone. It is easier for a landlord to wait for a deadbeat to die
than try to evict him.
I can see why the average man on the street reports being happy there
though.
cuh...@webtv.net
cuhulin
God's Debris
>http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/index.html
>
>Why France is best place to live in world
>
>By Daniela Deane for CNN
>February 11, 2010
>
The person designing the "survey" pretty much determines the "winner".
Magda
>
> French people are happy in france, it isn't the best place in the world
> to live unless you are french. The muslim influx is unhappifying the
> french by the day. There will be more French immigrants here in the
> coming years.
>
> On paper france has the best of everything for its citizens, unless a
> citizen want to start his own business, save some money or own and rent
> property. Since everything in France is skewed towards keeping the
> citizens happy it takes 6 months and costs nearly a year's salary to
> fire someone. It is easier for a landlord to wait for a deadbeat to die
> than try to evict him.
>
> I can see why the average man on the street reports being happy there
> though.
I'm not French, I've done my bit of travelling and, frankly, I don't
know many places better to live in than France. I don't know any, actually.
No one said it was *perfect*, after all.
x...@xxx.com
Harold Burton
"Goodbye Freedom Fries, Hello Pommes Frites!"
<bonjou...@aurevoiramerique.lol> wrote:
> Why France is best place to live in world...
....if you're a layabout or like to be insulted.
Snicker.
Harold Burton
<b3b11328-296e-45f7...@o8g2000vbm.googlegroups.com>,
wy <w...@myself.com> wrote:
> On Feb 11, 4:03�pm, "lab~rat >:-)" <ch...@cheeze.net> wrote:
> > On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:50:56 -0000, "Goodbye Freedom Fries, Hello
> > Pommes Frites!" <bonjourfra...@aurevoiramerique.lol> puked:
> >
> > >http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/in...
> >
> > >Why France is best place to live in world
> >
> > The coneheads were from France, weren't they..?
>
> France beats Florida any day, any hour, any micro-second. The people
> can be a little snooty...
What an understatement.
Snicker.
Harold Burton
"X...@XXX.COM" <x...@xxx.com> wrote:
Bingo!!!
wy
> In article
> <b3b11328-296e-45f7-bf52-48be14929...@o8g2000vbm.googlegroups.com>,
Snooty would be the preferred choice to you - ugly.
lab~rat >:-)
>On Feb 11, 4:03ÔøΩpm, "lab~rat >:-)" <ch...@cheeze.net> wrote:
>> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:50:56 -0000, "Goodbye Freedom Fries, Hello
>> Pommes Frites!" <bonjourfra...@aurevoiramerique.lol> puked:
>>
>> >http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/in...
>>
>> >Why France is best place to live in world
>>
>> The coneheads were from France, weren't they..?
>
>France beats Florida any day,
What do you have against Cubans, Haitians and dying old fucks from up
north?
Tater Gumfries
Tater loves France, but he still prefers Italy. French wines are
better and housing is cheaper, but Italian food is better and the
people are friendlier.
Tater
wy
> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:21:51 -0800 (PST),wy<w...@myself.com> puked:
>
> >On Feb 11, 4:03Êpm, "lab~rat >:-)" <ch...@cheeze.net> wrote:
> >> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:50:56 -0000, "Goodbye Freedom Fries, Hello
> >> Pommes Frites!" <bonjourfra...@aurevoiramerique.lol> puked:
>
> >> >http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/in...
>
> >> >Why France is best place to live in world
>
> >> The coneheads were from France, weren't they..?
>
> >France beats Florida any day,
>
> What do you have against Cubans, Haitians and dying old fucks from up
> north?
Nothing. It's the kind of French people we have here that I'm not too
crazy about. And the terrain is pretty boring too.
wull
"wy" <w...@myself.com> wrote in message
news:be7f6d03-9cc9-4252...@t1g2000vbq.googlegroups.com...
On Feb 15, 8:27 am, "lab~rat >:-)" <ch...@cheeze.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:21:51 -0800 (PST),wy<w...@myself.com> puked:
>
> >> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:50:56 -0000, "Goodbye Freedom Fries, Hello
> >> Pommes Frites!" <bonjourfra...@aurevoiramerique.lol> puked:
>
> >> >http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/in...
>
> >> >Why France is best place to live in world
>
> >> The coneheads were from France, weren't they..?
>
> >France beats Florida any day,
>
> What do you have against Cubans, Haitians and dying old fucks from up
> north?
Nothing. It's the kind of French people we have here that I'm not too
crazy about. And the terrain is pretty boring too.
It may be a great place to live if you speak the language. If you do not,
don't expect to be treated kindly.
Wull
lab~rat >:-)
>On Feb 15, 8:27ÔøΩam, "lab~rat >:-)" <ch...@cheeze.net> wrote:
>> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:21:51 -0800 (PST),wy<w...@myself.com> puked:
>>
>> >On Feb 11, 4:03ÔøΩpm, "lab~rat ÔøΩ>:-)" <ch...@cheeze.net> wrote:
>> >> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:50:56 -0000, "Goodbye Freedom Fries, Hello
>> >> Pommes Frites!" <bonjourfra...@aurevoiramerique.lol> puked:
>>
>> >> >http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/in...
>>
>> >> >Why France is best place to live in world
>>
>> >> The coneheads were from France, weren't they..?
>>
>> >France beats Florida any day,
>>
>> What do you have against Cubans, Haitians and dying old fucks from up
>> north?
>
>Nothing. It's the kind of French people we have here that I'm not too
>crazy about. And the terrain is pretty boring too.
>
I didn't realize that you were from Florida, or maybe I forgot.
Mountains are overrated and ok for vacation, IMO. But as for the
seasonal frogs, I agree.
JaxKayaker
France is a nice enough place. It has good food, good paintings, nice
countryside. Great
cathedrals and castles. The people are the most obnoxious I have met
ever traveling all
around the world. The only chance you have with them is if you speak
French and even then
they will let you know how much they hate the British. You think we
have a problem with
radical muslims in the US, have you visited Paris lately? Paris is
one of those places it is nice
have visited a few times. But living there? I'll take a house on the
beach in Florida anytime!