I would recommend Strasbourg, Montpellier, Lille or Grenoble.

How about Dijon?

What a good idea TW007! ;;)

It would seem that, if these people have duel citizenship, they would have some idea of some areas of France.

I really loved Lorient in Brittany...It is a small place that hosts one of the best kept secrets in the modern world....A massive festival called "The Gathering of The Celtic Nations",where about a quarter of a million people descend on this town.....And everyone has a whale of a time.....I also found the local people there to be pretty friendly...Although, they cannot always speak English....The other thing about this town is that the buildings tend to be generally modern-ish as it was bombed during the 2nd World War...But I do know that some British people have a holiday home,so I assume it is pretty affordable......

Maybe it is part of some sort of syndrome, but just coming back from St. Tropez, I'd be able to live at the Cote d'Azure. I loved it. I wouldn't want to be anywhere on that particular Penninsula in July or August, but I could do my re-entry say, September 15th or so? I'd take those two months and come back to the States.

LuckyLuc. It is amazing how many people do live in villages around Rouen, drive into town, park up free across the river at St Sever, then take the train to work in Paris each day.


I liken living in Paris to living in London. A tiny mid-terraced house in Chelsea (west of Westminster), which newspapers described as shabby, was up for sale at nearly £600,000 but ended up being sold for £900,000. If such people had £1, they'd have more money than sense.

"It would seem that, if these people have duel citizenship, they would have some idea of some areas of France."

Maybe, maybe not. We know someone who has Canadian citizenship, but hasn't lived in Canada since 1983. His first-hand knowledge of Canada is based almost entirely on vague memories from his early childhood in Ontario and a year spent in Vancouver as a teenager. Hardly an expert!

<i>Maybe, maybe not. We know someone who has Canadian citizenship, but hasn't lived in Canada since 1983.</i>

I haven't lived in the US since 1969 but I still have a decent understand of life in America.

Blackduff

But in this reported case, half of the dual citzenship may be in some EU country other France, and the shy (?) family may know nothing about France.

Actually I think life in the U.S. has changed quite a bit since 1969 (think how much life in Seattle has changed!) so I suppose you have been back to visit more than once--as an adult. Our Canadian friend has not been to Canada since he was a teen-ager.
Having citizenship of a country doesn't guarantee an in-depth knowledge of a country's regions and the quality of life in specific areas.

BT
Actually I was an adult when I left. I was 30 years old, at that time.

The first nine years I lived in Montreal, so I was in the US often. But, since that time, it was not frequent when I returned to the US. I worked for an American company, so I contact with Americans almost daily.

If I do have some changes in the US which cannot understand, it is the changes since 9/11. The politics in the US has changed forever now. I'm an outsider when I think about the current politics. But, I guess a lot of American residents are in the same condition.

Blackduff

Our family lived in the Luberon for 6-1/2 months in the off-season 2004-2005. Our daughter was 11 years old at the time and attended the village school.

We had an absolutely wonderful experience. We lived outside the village of Bonnieux and found everything we needed within 30 minutes. Sure, many restaurants were closed during the off-season, but plenty were open-- plus we didn't eat dinner out often at all. We made many life-long friends. Although we have returned to the USA, we continue to consider the Luberon a second home and have been back several times.

I'd ask your friends to think about what they want to get out of the experience as far as their children are concerned. Their children will adapt well since they are very young, but they are so young they won't remember much of anything. Would it make sense for them to wait until the children are a few years older? (Our daughter developed a real fluency and confidence in French that she has continued to build on.)

Your friends might be interested in my blog of our experience: www.slowtrav.com/blog/kaydee

Kathy

Montpellier, for sure. I already live there, in my dreams anyway.