Things I Love About Living In France

Having everything go from being a new experience to being your new normal is such an incredible feeling.

In my last article, I spoke about the things I hate about living in France, so I think it’s only fair that I follow it up with the reasons that I do love living here.

France really is such a beautiful country and I’ve been here for almost 3 years now. It’s so easy to forget about how incredible it is that I get to live here because it’s just become normal to me. Every now and then I’ll be walking around and it’ll just hit me — I really moved out and I’m living in France. So here are some of the reasons why I love living here:

Work-life balance is important

This doesn’t affect me too much right now because I don't have a job but it’s really cool to see people taking their holidays seriously. So many stores are closed on Sundays and as much as it’s inconvenient for me, it’s great knowing that almost everyone gets to use Sunday as their personal days.

In Canada, a lot of stores are still open on holidays. People would go into a store and always ask “why do they have you working on a holiday? You should be with your family.” But in reality, those exact customers are the reason that they’re open. The company knows that people will still come in on holidays so they keep the store open.

In France, a holiday is a holiday and people get to spend that time without having to work. There’s so much more of a focus on working to live instead of living to work.

Healthcare is really affordable

I’ll admit that I don’t know too much about how healthcare worked in Canada because I didn’t get sick often and I’m still on my parents' insurance. But in France, a doctor’s appointment only cost 25 euros (26 USD) and I get just under half of that reimbursed.

Not only is it affordable, but I’ve found that it’s really good health care. Every time that I’ve gone to a doctor, everyone was incredibly helpful and I was taken seriously.

The people are very nice (as long as you say “bonjour” first)

The French have a reputation for being cold and rude but I haven’t really found that to be the case. I think that around 90% of my interactions with people have been pretty positive.

They don’t really go out of their way to help you, but that shouldn’t be an expectation for anyone. If I go to the store in Canada and I ask an employee to help me find something, they usually walk me all the way to the shelf and then look for it with me; if I ask an employee to help me find something in France, they usually just tell me what aisle it’s in and what other items might be around it. They aren’t going out of their way to help, but they’re still helpful.

It’s easy to travel around France

The TGV is really affordable and they even offer monthly passes for unlimited travel for youth in the summer.

I haven’t had the chance to really travel around France as much as I would have liked, but travel is incredibly affordable and accessible, especially if you book early. I also love having the Eurostar so close, it makes travel to England really easy.

I can often find roundtrip trains to Paris for around 40 euros, and roundtrips to Brussels for around 20 euros. I love being able to travel so far for such affordable costs.

The country is beautiful

Every now and then I feel like I come back to reality and remember that I’m living here and I take a minute to really look around me and appreciate the beauty.

Not only is the country beautiful, but being a student here also allows you to experience other types of beauty. My student card gets me free access to museums and it’s great for experiencing the incredible culture here.

Final thoughts

There will always be things that I love and hate, and being able to spend some time thinking about the reasons I like it here really helped me appreciate the country a little more.

If you liked this article then you should follow me! I write about travel, living and studying abroad, and personal development. But sometimes I do stray away from those topics so I can write about other things that interest me.

And if you haven’t already, consider becoming a Medium member so you can read an unlimited number of stories per month. If you use my referral link, it helps to support me at no extra cost to you!

If you enjoyed this article then you might also enjoy these: