France, a welcoming destination to expats?

I'd visited many times in the past before moving there. When we moved to Paris it was not all that nice as people are kind of unfriendly. We lived just on rue Pergolese in the 16e for a year and while the location was nice and the apartment was very nice, we had a crappy Portoguese conciierge who thought that our parking place belonged to them. However living a few minutes walk from the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees was nice. We also had a warehouse La Pleine Saint Denis as we imported products from Asia. After a year we moved down to Biarritz in the Basque country where the people are nice, beautiful countryside, great skiing in the Pyrenees and great surf.

First impression was good, but got kind of fed up with dishonest people in Paris. Biarritz was better.bought a property that once belonged to Coco Chanel in downtown Biarritz and a house in Anglet. Had many friends, the owner of the Quiksilver store who was a Kiwi and played for the All Blacks, Francis Haget who played rugby union for France, Serge Blanco and many other people. Liked that we could drive 25 minutes into Spain. There was a Welsh guy who worked at the BMW service centre which was nice.   Really had a lot of friends there.

Welcoming is really the country. People in Paris were not so pleasant. In the Pays Basque they were nice. Huge taxes to pay for a business and they charge for so many weird things. They give money to you when you have kids. Catholic schools were rubbish as they were so old fashioned with old fashioned teachers.

Dishonest taxi drivers in Paris, useless police. Useless social workers for kids, Useless judge for Children. A lot of bad things in my opinion but better in the rural areas. I never really mixed with expats, mostly with French people. Overall mixed feelings. I did 7 years there and that is enough. The skiing was brilliant in the Alps, Pyrenees, Andorra too. Surfing in Biarritz, Anglet, Hossegor was amazing.

Was very happy to leave France and all it's complications and move to Asia.

@Cheryl I went to Paris, France in 2007 so my experiences may be outdated but...I loved it immediately. I spoke high school level French but people were very nice & I eventually became more fluent (there are free French language classes at most local Mairies/town halls). I met an American woman in line at the grocery store who became my walking buddy. She'd been married to a French man & had 2 kids, then divorced. She worked for a regional airline & also took French doctors to the US for conferences & was their guide/interpreter while there. She told me about a job opportunity teaching at a university in Paris that required all classes be taught in English (there are MANY like this) & although I did not have a college degree, they were happy with my many years of management experience in corporate America. They helped me get my work permit. I found an American lawyer (great guy - can't remember his name - former professional baseball player) who created the whole submission package for me for $75 (could be a lot more now). Some important things to know about getting a French work permit: I had to get documents from the US, like a police report about me from the police department in my home town. All documents in English must be translated into French prior to submission (my lawyer either did the translations or facilitated it for me). If you plan to try and get a work permit, try and get the required documents before you leave for France. At the time, it was required that I return to the US and submit my completed work permit submission package to the French consulate closest to where I lived. Once I did that and was approved there, I returned to Paris and started the process in France and was eventually approved. If I didn't have to return to the US in 2012 to take care of my elderly parents, I would still be living in France. I still have my friends there & visit as often as I can.