Why France is best place to live in world (CNN)

[chasmj]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/?hpt=T2

Why France is best place to live in world
By Daniela Deane for CNN
February 11, 2010 8:42 a.m. EST

London, England (CNN) -- Bindi Dupouy, an Australian living in Paris, and her French husband, just had their first child, a son born in the country. Dupouy, a 28-year-old lawyer, got almost five months paid maternity leave from her company for the birth. She can take another seven months off beyond that -- a year total -- unpaid, if she wants, with her job guaranteed under French law. When her son Louis was born, healthy and by way of a normal delivery, she got to stay in her local French hospital, around the corner from where she lives, for five full days, to rest.

Welcome to France, voted the best place in the world to live for the fifth year in a row by International Living magazine, which has been analyzing data and publishing its annual Quality of Life Index for 30 years. One of the reasons France keeps winning the ranking is its world-class health care system, which Dupouy just experienced first-hand.

"They treat expecting mums like treasures here," Dupouy told CNN from her Paris apartment. "They take really good care of you. The health care system is just amazing." She said she wouldn't have gotten the same maternity leave -- or care -- back home in Australia. At her job, Dupouy also gets seven weeks paid vacation a year, although it's her first job as an attorney since graduating with a law degree in Australia. She doesn't think twice about taking the Metro across town -- for just $1.37 a ride -- to visit a friend. Or she picks up a rental bike at one of the many computerized bike hire racks in town to get around.

France scores high marks across the board in the survey, which is done every January, from health care (100 points) to infrastructure (92 points) to safety and risk (100 points). "No surprise," said the magazine in its report. "Its (France's) tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world's best health care." "The bread, the cheese, the wine," Dan Prescher, special projects editor at the magazine, told CNN, when asked why France just keeps on winning year after year. "That weighs pretty heavily in quality of life."...

[closeupready]

1. Yeah, but they don't have the Grand Canyon, Times Square or trials by jury.

A lot to love in living there, but I still prefer living here in the US.

[poverlay]

4. I think I'd prefer the best healthcare, infrastructure, and safety... The Grand Canyon is

just a hole. A very pretty one, but still a hole. I know, I've lived near it for my whole life and it's never been a comfort when I, or anyone I know is sick...

[closeupready]

5. Different strokes for different folks.

:hi:

Two reasons (among many) why infrastructure in France is superior - small land area to cover, and de facto socialist taxation scheme - neither of which make that infrastructure less preferable to no/poor infrastructure such as we have in the US; but what it does mean is that until Americans clamor for better infrastructure above all else, authorities will have to make do with the meager resources they have to cover a continent-sized land mass. Also, I too have firsthand knowledge of which I speak, as I lived in France many years ago, and I love it there, but prefer living here in the US.

[Fire1]

6. No trials by jury? Not true. Their criminal courts list offenses

into three categories. Minor offenses do not require jurys but criminal offenses are treated the same as they are here. The exception is that in criminal cases there are three (3) judges instead of one plus a jury of nine citizens.

[closeupready]

8. I was wrong that there are no jury trials, but

a 'jury' trial where the jury consists not of the accused's peers but, rather, simply more officials is not a jury trial in the American sense where those who are judging your guilt are people who come from all walks of life.

[Fire1]

9. Are you speaking from experience or from a noted

authority? Otherwise, "citizens," would mean just that. I'll have to consult Frenchie, on that.

[closeupready]

14. Oh, wait, no i'm sorry - again I'm wrong

I misunderstood - I thought you were writing that the 'jury' consists only of three judges - I see now you were saying that it's three judges PLUS nine citizens.

Maybe their justice system isn't all that different, after all. :D Shows you what I know. :rofl:

[hlthe2b]

10. But, they can come and visit these spots..

I don't know that they railroad too many people in their criminal justice system, either.

[sinkingfeeling]

18. Parlez vous francais?

[closeupready]

20. Uh...

Un petit peu, maintenant, parce que mon sejour a ete avant un longtemps. :)

[earth mom]

2. All it takes to have such a civilized society is a revolution.

I don't think people in this country are willing to fight for the same rights.

[dysfunctional press]

3. someday...maybe...

if things get bad enough before some type of natural/man-made world-wide catastrophe that changes everything for the worse anyway.

[riverdale]

22. We could go all the way to fascist dictatorship and nothing will happen

How much worse could it get than during the Great Depression? People were starving and dying while others remained filthy rich. I say if there wasn't a revolution then, there is not going to be one ever.

[On the Road]

7. Whether It's Paris, Brittany, or Marseilles

it's argue to argue with living in France.

[onehandle]

11. I believe it. I spent the better part of a month there in 2008. The quality of life was amazing.

The food was always farm fresh from border to border. The people were warm, friendly, and generally happy.

I took advantage of the 'computerized bike hire racks.' You can pick up a bike for a buck fifty (or sixty dollars for a full year) and ride it all over town where there are many other stations to drop the bike off.

The wine, of course, was the best in the world.

[Fire1]

12. The FOOD is the best in the world, as well!! n/t

[spooky3]

16. gained 10 lbs. without eating much cheese or drinking much wine! Great food everywhere.

Now if only they would cut down on some of the smoking...

[Fire1]

17. I love that, too!! n/t

[spooky3]

15. I had the same wonderful experience. A French friend, though, notes that salaries are low

so that she couldn't afford to use her vacation times to take good vacations, and has fewer luxuries that many Americans expect.

[onehandle]

24. Living in France would be a 24/7 vacation.

I'd take the income hit, gladly.

[Mari333]

13. .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V7zbWNznbs

[Libertas1776]

19. For caucasions mostly, I assume.

I don't know if the swaths of Algerian, Turkish, etc immigrants living in overcrowded housing projects and constantly harassed by police would say the same. Don't get me wrong America is a shit hole in its own right, especially to immigrants, but lets not pretend France is perfect either.

[timeforpeace]

21. Which brings to mind the heady aroma of the annual car-burning riots. Good times.

[cherokeeprogressive]

23. Yeah, I'm not buying it. International Living is a real estate magazine.

Bread, cheese, and wine are why France "just keeps on winning year after year"? The real estate agents who work for the magazine didn't have a single thing to do with the results... riiiight.