Finding a good living environment in which to raise your children is not always easy. However, there is a region in France which has many advantages to offer young parents, particularly in terms of safety and health.
When starting a family, many parents are sometimes faced with a common dilemma: stay in the same town where they grew up, went to school or had their first job, or leave to find a better place to raise their children (in generally away from the family). If you are thinking of changing your place of life, you probably have some well-defined criteria in mind. Generally, parents are looking for a healthy living environment, spared from major pollution peaks, where the cost of living is not exorbitant either and with all the necessary amenities (schools, pediatricians, pharmacies, play parks, places cultural, shops, etc.). If you think it’s impossible to find a place that meets all of these criteria, think again. Of the thirteen regions that make up France, one of them clearly stands out (and it is not the south of France)!
In February 2023, our colleagues from Parisian have established a very detailed ranking of the French cities most suitable for family life. They compared more than 444 municipalities based on specific criteria (number of pediatricians and maternity wards, air pollution, burglary rate, presence of green spaces, number of play areas, pharmacies, etc.). Results: the first places in the ranking are occupied by four cities located in the Grand-Est region. A region with a temperate climate, which covers more than 57,441 km² with five large urban areas of more than 250,000 inhabitants (Metz, Mulhouse, Nancy, Reims and Strasbourg).
Concerning the cities, the prize for the best town in which to settle with children goes to Illkirch-Graffenstaden (67), located south of Strasbourg. It is followed by the very attractive town of Nancy (54), known for its famous Place Stanislas and the gourmet house of the Sisters Macarons. The following places are occupied by the town of Chaumont (52), nicknamed “the city in the green” and by the town of Montigny-lès-Metz (57), on the outskirts of Metz which is also classified among the cities greenest in France.
What stands out from these four cities in eastern France is in particular the good health network and the number of green spaces present in Illkirch-Graffenstaden and Nancy. The price of housing is also a significant asset in Chaumont. Overall, the awarded municipalities are not the large metropolises we know. And you certainly wouldn’t have thought of it before, but the east of France is full of large areas to accommodate young families.