France's 'least welcoming cities'

FOUR French cities - three of them in the Paca region - have featured in a top-30 league table of the least welcoming in the world.

American magazine Travel+Leisure asked 200,000 readers to score 260 global cities according to various criteria including cleanliness and how friendly the locals were.

Moscow was named the least friendly city in the world, followed by Atlantic City in New Jersey and Saint Petersburg.

The worst performer in France was Marseille, which was fourth in the global ranking, described by the magazine as "quite unkempt and gritty".

"Fading movie star" Cannes came 10th, described as a place that is "most accommodating to visitors with major cash to spend".

Just along the coast, Nice was ranked 22nd with one traveller saying: "The people were not friendly at all." Lyon takes 26th place in the top 30.

US cities occupied six places in the top 10 of least friendly places to visit.