The French

[EternalOptimist]

Thing about the French is, there are none.

I have been driving around Normandy for a week, and its empty. Half the cars are GB and its very quiet.

the food is good, the local home made cidre is good

and its hot.

[doodab]

It's August. They are all on holiday in the south.

[TimberWolf]

The are a lot of them but they are spread out, unlike Britain where 3 or 4 families share a bedsit.

[OwlHoot]

The are a lot of them but they are spread out, unlike Britain where 3 or 4 families share a bedsit.

I heard the opposite, from someone who owns a framhouse in Normandy and fears it is unsaleable, at least to a French person.

Apparently most French would hate the idea of living in a chateau or remote farm house, even if they could afford it, and they would much rather live on top of each other in town apartments.

[MrMark]

There are currently an awful lot of French in London, apparently.

The French community in London: Paris-on-Thames | The Economist

The Frenchification of Arsenal is perhaps the most famous example of a broader French influx to London. This, too, began in earnest in the 1990s as the city boomed with Britain’s economy (though there has been a French presence since the Huguenot migration of the 17th century). Firm numbers are hard to come by; as European Union (EU) citizens, the French can move to Britain without registering with any authority. But their consulate estimates that up to 400,000 of London’s 7.6m people are citizens of the republic, possibly making the French the largest minority nationality in the city.

Now it may be my suspicious mind, but weren't the French a bit miffed at losing out on hosting the Olympics? Be very careful...

[sasguru]

I heard the opposite, from someone who owns a framhouse in Normandy and fears it is unsaleable, at least to a French person.

Apparently most French would hate the idea of living in a chateau or remote farm house, even if they could afford it, and they would much rather live on top of each other in town apartments.

True, the essence of French chic is to live in a Haussmann apartment in the centre of Paris. The richest ones will also have a country chateau but the sort of farmhouses and gites favoured by Brits are considered by them to be suitable only for peasants and farmers.

[moorfield]

the food is good, the local home made cidre is good

and its hot.

Indeed it has been. I have been enjoying my annual horse meat fest. Back to the office on Monday.

[TimberWolf]

I heard the opposite, from someone who owns a framhouse in Normandy and fears it is unsaleable, at least to a French person.

Apparently most French would hate the idea of living in a chateau or remote farm house, even if they could afford it, and they would much rather live on top of each other in town apartments.

Just joking at the UK's population problem (density specifically, where we are king in Europe now), but running with it....

France has about a third the population density of England. Zooming in on population densities of large cities: First up (most dense) comes the UK with London (5000 people squished into 1 square km), then comes Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham,... then ...Paris at 3500 people per square km. Lyon, Nice, and a lot more French cities follow in that list, perhaps indicating that there are a lot of French cities that are more populous than the UK, but have lowish population densities. On the other hand one could come to all sorts of conclusions.

Not scientific, but a notch up from "what my mate said"

[TimberWolf]

Just joking at the UK's population problem (density specifically, where we are king in Europe now), but running with it....

France has about a third the population density of England. Zooming in on population densities of large cities: First up (most dense) comes the UK with London (5000 people squished into 1 square km), then comes Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham,... then ...Paris at 3500 people per square km. Lyon, Nice, and a lot more French cities follow in that list, perhaps indicating that there are a lot of French cities that are more populous than the UK, but have lowish population densities. On the other hand one could come to all sorts of conclusions.

Not scientific, but a notch up from "what my mate said"

Our 5000 people/km^2 has some way to go to catch up with India though:

40 Chennai 4,616,639[42] Municipal Corporation 187 24,688 India
42 Kolkata 4,486,679[50] Municipal Corporation 185 24,252 India
5 Mumbai 12,478,447[9] Municipal Corporation 603 20,694 India
48 Ahmedabad 3,959,432[42] Municipal Corporation 204 19,944 India

List of cities proper by population - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ah, a table that can be sorted. Off-topic, do you web guys use something like JQuery to do that, or do you roll it by hand, or not bother allowing tables to be sorted, like in the old days.

[TimberWolf]

On the other hand the following list suggest French cities are really densely populated and London 'city proper' doesn't even get a look-in in the top 50:

List of cities proper by population density - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bored with that now.