Bordeaux vs Montpellier

A compact, low-rise city where the limestone old town is one of the most walkable in France and daily errands rarely need a car. Neighbourhoods are well defined and mixed in use, with shops, cafes and homes layered together.

Montpellier is compact and built for walking, with a tight medieval core and tram lines that make a car optional. It is a mid-sized city rather than a metropolis, so it lacks the heft of Lyon or Marseille but keeps a human scale.

Bordeaux is a safe place to live by most measures, with very low serious violence and streets that feel comfortable after dark. Pickpocketing and the usual city-centre opportunism exist, roughly on par with Berlin, so ordinary caution applies in busy spots.

Violent crime is rare and the city feels secure on that front, with traffic safety also strong. Where it slips is petty crime, the pickpocketing and opportunistic theft common to busy southern European cities, so the streets ask for ordinary city awareness rather than worry.

Bordeaux has a serviceable local job market, with adequate industry breadth and professional networks that are useful without being deep. Care quality and hospital access are strong, backed by France's well-funded public system, and out-of-pocket costs stay low once a person is enrolled.

The local market remains thin, with high unemployment and few roles designed for English-only applicants. France's public system delivers solid quality care here, with good hospitals and emergency cover and low out-of-pocket costs once enrolled.

Wine country runs through everything here, and the restaurant, cafe and bistro culture is excellent for the city's size, just short of Paris. Bordeaux has scrubbed up well, its honey-stone centre restored and the tram corridors kept clean.

There is plenty of life for a city this size, fuelled by a large student population. Montpellier is a clean, sunny southern city, its student-filled old town well kept and walkable.