International Living

France is the country where the quality of life is the best, according to the classification of the American magazine on the expatriation of the retired people International Living. The list, which puts France in the lead for the 5th consecutive year, is established according to the national statistics and to the international organizations, completed by the appreciations of the correspondents of the magazine in the world. In total, 194 countries were studied, on criteria as varied as the climate, the cost of living, the culture, the leisure activities, the environment or the safety. France comes before Australia, Switzerland, Germany and New Zealand, in this classification realized for thirty years. "No surprise. An annoying bureaucracy and high taxes do not take it over on unbeatable quality of life, in particular the best health system in the world ", writes the magazine. I agree now that I made the experience of living abroad in many countries for years now. I miss my health security system. France obtains the note of 100 % for the freedom, the safety and the health but the leisure activities and the culture, the category in which France is classified only 19th, and for the environment at the 64th, are judged as the weak points of the country. In UK, the classification makes creak teeth. Daily Mail notes that Great Britain fell on the 25th place behind countries such as the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Uruguay, with a lot of sinister photos of these countries: "where the British are known for their love of diners in front of the TV and binge drinking, the French people savor the good things in life." The publisher of the magazine, Jackie Flynn, gives the fact that "the life is savored " in France and that there is " so much pride in the small details ", quoting " the flowers at the window, well maintained gardens, charming terraces of café, and appropriate clean streets ", as well as cities " well managed and with a low criminality" (so cliché, we’ll talk about that later). The classification should delight Nicolas Sarkozy, who recently announced his will to revolutionize the international economic statistics, in particular the one who measures the Gross domestic product : The President wants to take into account the " human well-being ". Knowing well enough the American mentality of elites " East Coast/West Coast", I know that there is a very deep pro-French tropism to them (memory of La Fayette, The Child who drew Washington, DC), which confides in the snobbery, they see France with pink coloured glasses " - the article of International Living only contains clichés ("the joy of lingering for hours in a Parisian brasserie with a bottle of wine", "lavender scented Provence", "wild and lovely Corsica"!!!!!) Who shows a complete ignorance of people's real life and reality in our society. (they obviously never put a feet in La Courneuve, in Vaux-en-Velin, in Marseille Nord at La Reynerie) And of a purely tourist vision of France. I believe that you should not more give credit to this survey than in any other Anglo-Saxon surveyl 6 months ago which, on the contrary, classified the French tourists at the last position in terms of kindness (still, that here in my opinion we are already closer to the reality!)