Inside the unassuming town that usurped Riviera as France's best place to live Henry SamuelAugust 25, 2025 at 6:00 AM The vast medieval walled fortress in Fougères is Europe's largest iStockphoto The French Riviera has long been the goto destination for those desperate to soak up some summer sun.
- - Inside the unassuming town that usurped Riviera as France's best place to live
Henry SamuelAugust 25, 2025 at 6:00 AM
The vast medieval walled fortress in Fougères is Europe's largest - iStockphoto
The French Riviera has long been the go-to destination for those desperate to soak up some summer sun.
But its once balmy coastal weather is increasingly prey to a series of punishing heatwaves and forest fires linked to climate change – not to mention swarms of pesky mosquitoes.
Now, a picturesque medieval town in Brittany that most French people have never heard of has shot to the top of a national ranking of best places to live as a result of the country's changing climate.
Fougères's sudden claim to climate fame comes as rising temperatures are shifting mentalities regarding where to holiday or indeed buy a house in France and other European countries.
Traditionally, cool and wet regions like Brittany and Normandy are turning into increasingly attractive alternatives to beat the heat.
Against that backdrop, Le Parisien newspaper this week released a national ranking of the best and worst towns with a population of over 20,000 to live in France in the coming decades.
Compiling data from national forecaster Météo France, the list is based on criteria that include average temperature in 2050 and 2100, number of very hot days, number of tropical nights, as well as the risk of flooding and forest fires.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a string of towns and cities in southern France are bottom of the list, with the southwestern fishing port of Sète ranked last. Others near the bottom are Marseille and Avignon.
The top end, meanwhile, is filled with towns in Normandy and Brittany, and the Hauts-de-France.
Fougères is located just half an hour from Rennes and 40 minutes from Mont Saint-Michel - VICTOR RAISON
To the delight of its town hall, in pole position is Fougères, population 20,600.
Half an hour from Rennes and 40 minutes from Mont Saint-Michel, the town gained considerable wealth via the textile and crystal glass industry and was long France's shoemaking capital. But the only evidence of this is now in the town's museum.
Meanwhile, with no train connection and some way from the coast, it currently doesn't attract anything near the summer crowds you get in resorts like Saint-Malo, where some locals rail against over-tourism.
But gazing down at its pretty cobbled streets from atop Saint Léonard's church, it's easy to see why Fougères (French for fern) has such impeccable climate credentials. Trees, greenery, and waterways are everywhere you look, with valleys and surrounding forests bringing fresh air and water to the town.
As well as its vast medieval walled fortress – Europe's largest – the town relied on its humid, marshy surroundings as a natural protection against the marauding English during the Hundred Years War. Now, Mother Nature is providing a different line of defence against the common enemy of global warming, according to Diana Lefeuvre, the town's deputy mayor in charge of green transition.
The medieval town is home to 20,600 residents - VICTOR RAISON
"Its strengths lie in the fact that it is quite high up, it is protected by a beach forest that keeps it cool and provides drinking water, notably via drains built 200 years ago. It is hilly and has three waterways running through it. In fact, the city and castle were built around the river," she said.
"We've also planted a lot of trees. There are 7,000, one for every three inhabitants, and these green lungs are one of our most important assets."
It is also well-positioned in terms of the Atlantic coast, far enough to avoid flood risks but near enough to gain from cooler, more temperate sea air.
The town has an abundance of trees and other greenery - Mahaux Photography
"It's better to be fairly close to the coast but not right on it, especially if the coastline is low-lying and sandy," said Olivier Cantat, climatologist at the University of Caen Normandy.
"Towns located further inland should fare better." Size is also important. Bigger cities trap the heat and risk becoming "urban heat islands", he added.
With no train connection and being situated some way from the coast, the town currently does not attract huge crowds in the summer - VICTOR RAISON
Situated about 25 miles inland, Fougères may escape with fewer than five days of very high temperatures (at least 35C) and only about ten tropical nights (when temperatures fail to fall below 20C) by 2100.
By contrast, more than 100 nights a year could be tropical on the Mediterranean coast and in the Provence hinterland by 2100, twice as many as in recent decades. Average maximum temperatures in summer will likely exceed 30C by the end of the century. On some days, the thermometer will climb to around 50C.
The oldest parish church in the town - Lumir Pecold
Lucy Arnold, 50, a British bilingual PA, said she had no regrets moving from Saffron Walden, Essex, to Fougères seven years ago with her husband and two daughters.
They came to be closer to her parents who have a house nearby but also to enjoy the French life in a smallish, rural town away from urban "pressure on our children in the UK from social media, that sort of thing".
"And we felt that by doing so, we did gain a couple of years more childhood, if you like."
Climate-wise, the downside is "we get a lot of rain and certainly in the winter it can be quite wet and miserable", she said, but added that her family had shelved plans to buy a property further south due to fears of hotter weather.
She said that the climate fame of Fougères was already causing a stir in the town. "A friend contacted me yesterday and said, 'You must be very happy'. I said, 'Yes, but the thing is we might get flooded by British people now'. She said, 'Yes, but at least maybe our house prices will increase'."
Lucy Arnold and her family moved from Essex to Fougères seven years ago - VICTOR RAISON
As for tourists, inside the fortress, Mireille and Guy David, two retired teachers who live in the French Pyrenees near the Spanish border, said they had driven up through France in their camper car and had stopped in Fougères on their way to Ireland via ferry.
"Summer is frankly becoming hellish in France. We prefer northern Europe," said Mrs David. "Driving up, everything looked scorched and dry. We passed through the Landes in western France, which was hit by a massive forest fire a couple of years ago. Then suddenly, we reached Nantes and the greenery returned. It was such a relief."
"I find this climate change personally really scary. Things are moving much faster than we were told. It feels like we're heading for a disaster scenario."
On a family holiday from Norfolk, Jack Brooks and his wife and daughter, Vicky and Rose, knew about Fougères because his father bought a property in the area 20 years ago.
With an easy link from Saint-Malo or Cherbourg for Britons, the town boasts attractive brasseries and cafes beyond its centrepiece castle.
"If you look at the weather today in Norfolk, it's roughly the same weather but the food's 10 times better," he said. "I wouldn't consider going down the South of France in summer because it would be too far to drive with children and be too hot for us. I'm already getting a bit sweaty today. Frankly, this is my limit."
The Brooks family finds the weather in Fougères more manageable than that in the south of France - VICTOR RAISON
Matthieu David, a French-British PhD student at Caen Normandy University, has spent three summers studying tourist habits on northern French beaches on the nearby Norman Cotentin peninsula.
He found that just under half came for what he called "the strategic quest for coolness".
"These people have a probabilistic approach to heat waves. That is, they're not going to come because a heatwave is forecast but because there's a chance that they can avoid one at home when they come on holiday in the summer."
A quarter beat a tactical retreat as a knee-jerk reaction to a heatwave forecast, "and decided to go somewhere cool".
He said that in both cases, "the idea of climate refugees is starting to emerge". "When you dig deeper, you realise they don't have the same motivations as traditional tourists."
While officials in Fougères were clearly pleased for the town to be singled out, Ms Lefeuvre warned the region couldn't handle a major influx.
Diana Lefeuvre, the town's deputy mayor in charge of green transition. warned against complacency on either side of the Channel, describing climate change as 'a lottery' - VICTOR RAISON
"We can only welcome so many people because one mustn't forget that in Brittany we have limited water resources and are already suffering from drought," she said.
And even if it is better equipped to withstand global warming extremes in the short term, Vincent Dubreuil, vice-president of the Higher Breton Climate Council, said: "Brittany isn't going to be spared from climate change. Fougères will be 4C warmer at the end of the century, just like everywhere else."
According to his calculations, by then, nearby Rennes will have the same climate as Coimbra in central Portugal.
"You may say that's not a problem, except handling such spectacular changes in a short period of time is no easy feat.
"The key message is that climate change concerns all regions and there's as much adapting to be done to it in Brittany as anywhere else."
For those curious, French experts said that similar towns in Britain would have topped the rankings too, given the UK's latitude and island status.
However, Ms Lefeuvre warned against complacency on either side of the Channel.
"In the latest projections, there are question marks over the sea currents that allow Brittany, but also Great Britain, to enjoy this favourable climate. If the current stops, we will have a continental climate and that would change everything," she said.
"It's a lottery. When we talk about climate change, we still don't really know exactly what this change will actually bring."
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