Western France leads new ranking of nicest places to live in France

Western France dominates in a new ranking of towns and cities with the highest quality of life, taking all three top spots and several of the top 30. 

The indice de bien-être en ville (IBV) or quality of life index is the focal point of a new major study by the Alternatives Economiques magazine. 

It aims to measure the well-being of residents in France’s 133 communes with 50,000 inhabitants or more. 

The IBV takes 15 key indexes focused on how enjoyable and stress-free living in towns and cities, divided into 38 sub-categories. 

Main categories include transport, employment, culture, health, education, etc, with sub categories including the number of trips taken with bikes as opposed to cars, strength of non-profit organisations in the area and green spaces. 

It also looks at economic factors such as wages and house prices, but not potential returns on investment from selling a home, as the intention is to show quality of life for full-time residents.

It also avoids looking at purely economic rankings such as GDP per capita, which it says does not represent the quality of a town to live in but purely the wealth generated by it. Standard of living only accounts for around one-tenth of a city’s overall ranking. 

The study used several sources including Insee, France’s national statistics body. 

Each of the 15 categories were given a score out of 100 (based on the results of its sub categories) for all cities, which were then averaged out to give each municipality a final score out of 100. 

Note the study only looked at the city limits proper, and not wider urban areas. 

In some cases, particularly for Paris, these suburbs are large enough to be included separately in the ranking.

West coast, best coast? 

The three highest-ranked cities are all positioned in the west of France.

La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime, population of 80,000) came out on top, followed by Angers (Maine-et-Loire, 160,000) and Bordeaux (Gironde, 270,000). 

The cities scored 62/100 and 61/100 (tied between Angers and Bordeaux).

“La Rochelle boasts a remarkably balanced profile: it excels in several areas without performing poorly in any, making it the quintessential mid-sized city,” said Alternatives Economiques in its report.

“Its strengths lie in sustainable mobility (ranked 4th out of 133 municipalities), culture (5th), and healthcare (10th). It is a city where people cycle, go to the movies, and find a doctor without any problems.”

The French Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB) ranks La Rochelle as the third most cycle-friendly mid-sized city in France – although be careful not to wear your headphones when cycling in the city.

However, the city does have an aging population, with relatively few young families moving to the area because of higher house prices. 

In comparison, Angers is a young and vibrant city, noted for its economic equality in employment ranking (5th) and number of associations and charities (2nd). 

Insee notes low levels of isolation among the elderly and high rates of sports participation in the city, further boosting the community spirit. 

It has plenty of green space, however has fairly high unemployment and low income marrs its final score. 

Bordeaux, as the largest city in the top three, has a different profile, benefitting from its education and mobility (ranked 3rd in France for the latter). 

However, it scores very poorly for housing (83rd), due to high property costs, lack of social housing, and increasing gentrification. Since 2010, the arrival of Parisians to the city (further bolstered by the 2017 high-speed line to the capital) has seen demographics shift. 

Rounding out the top ten are the municipalities of: 

• La Roche-sur-Yon (Vendée), 61/100

• Niort (Deux-Sèvres), 60/100

• Albi (Tarn), 60/100

• Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), 60/100

• Vannes (Morbihan), 60/100

• Amiens (Somme), 58/100

• Chambéry (Savoie), 58/100

Ultimately, 19 of the top 30 cities are located in the north and west, in the regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Pays de la Loire, Brittany, Centre-Val de Loire, and Normandy.

Cities in these regions largely benefitted from mid-size city perks (access to modern facilities, good security, and social cohesion) without high house prices associated with France’s largest cities.

Certain major cities fared poorly, including Nice (ranked 85th), due to low scores in culture, social cohesion and safety and Perpignan (100th), ranked near the bottom for education, safety, and income.

Paris (53rd) scored extremely high for education, employment, and safety, but low for housing.

Cities in the Île-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions saw an average placement of 95/133 and 60/133 respectively. 

“These two indicators demonstrate how this ranking disrupts conventional hierarchies, prioritizing social cohesion and local services over GDP per capita, the average wealth generated per person,” said Alternatives Economiques. 

You can find the full rankings for 133 cities here (behind a paywall, but the article is free to sign up to read. You can click on each city in the ranking for its full score).

The article here allows you to make your own ranking by weighting the factors most important to you. 

How different are cities? 

Across the 133 cities ranked, scores on the higher end were close. 

Only 12 overall points separated Marseille (ranked 68th with a score of 50/100) and top-spot La Rochelle. 

Equally the lowest-ranked cities of Aubervilliers and Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis) scored 38/100, 12 points behind Marseille.

The study is “not an index of subjective well-being, but rather of collective well-being based on objective data… Instead, it describes socio-economic conditions that are more or less conducive to individual flourishing,” said Alternatives Economiques. 

Some sociologists have raised queries over this methodology. 

Mathieu Perona, director of the Observatoire du bien-être du Cepremap, said that certain criteria used could skewer results. 

For example, the proportion of people under 25 in a city – ranked as a positive by the IBV as it points towards vibrancy – is something that retirees may actively try to avoid. 

Cities in the Var and French Riviera are populated largely by retirees with relatively few young families, causing lower scores on the IBV, but residents in the areas could view that as a positive, not a negative.

However, the main aim of the IBV is to assess France through a lens that is different to GDP – a ‘sacrosanct’ reading that must be ‘knocked off its pedestal.’

“The engines of growth are no longer necessarily the engines of well-being: they are no longer the most attractive places to live, nor the ones fighting poverty most effectively, nor the ones where per capita income is rising the fastest,” said professor Philippe Davezies to the magazine.

Several similar studies – factoring in GDP and other elements of daily life – provide different results. You can read the 2026 Ville de Rêve rankings in our article here.