A haven of peace where you can spend happy days. This is what the French are looking for at the end of their professional activity. According to INSEE figures, 75,000 retirees (out of 620,000) take the plunge each year by choosing to move. Need for a change of scenery, to get away from city life to find tranquility in the countryside or by the sea: the desires of seniors are numerous.
For Yolande, an accountant who has been retired for two years, “local shops, access to care and hospitals” are essential criteria. “They must be located in the city itself or very close,” explains the sixty-year-old for Planet. “We’re getting older, not everyone necessarily has a car or we drive less. Having everything nearby is practical,” believes this Ile-de-France resident who also enjoys the sea.
Before her husband Bruno retires in a few years, the couple spends weekends between Brittany and Normandy. Two regions that they particularly like to spend their retired lives there. While keeping a good distance from the Paris region. “If we want to come back to Paris from time to time, or if our family visits us, it’s not very far,” they assure us in one voice.
For the most undecided among you, Le Parisien revealed this Saturday October 1st the unprecedented ranking of cities (with more than 20,000 inhabitants) where it is good to live in retirement. Among around thirty selected criteria (climate, leisure, accessibility or even real estate), the choice of respondents reflects a major desire to settle in the south of France, in the sun and close to the sea. Other cities draw stand out with various advantages to attract new retirees all year round.
Are you more of Aquitaine, Corsica or Burgundy? Embark on this Tour de France of the regions, discovering the top 20 of the best cities where it is good to grow old through our slideshow.