Statistics released to French news site The Local from France’s National Statistics Agency (INSEE) illustrates the congregation of British expats around the country, with certain areas far more heavily populated than others.
The most popular region of France for Britons, according to these figures, is the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, where 21,000 of them reside. Next comes Poitou-Charentes, in the west of France, where the 16,300 Britons comprise 33% of the overall foreign resident population. In third place is Aquitaine in the southwest, which includes the sought-after Dordogne area, with 16,100 British residents while neighbouring Midi-Pyrénnées comes fourth with 15,800.
The figures also reveal that Britons have little or no desire to live in certain other parts of France. For example, the Mediterranean island of Corsica is only home to around 200 Brits, and the Champagne-Ardenne and Franche-Comté regions in the east of the mainland each count only around 400 British residents.
