Même en temps de crise – “Dieu est-il français?”

Même en temps de crise – “Dieu est-il français?”

Chaque année, International Living, fameuse revue US spécialisée dans les voyages et la qualité de vie, établit un classement dit “Quality of life Index. Elle mesure la “qualité de vie” à partir d’un certain nombres de références qu’elle indique en marge de ce classement. Elle vient de donner son classement pour 2010 (voir ce lien). La France y est classée première pour la cinquième année consécutive. Généralement réputée pour être “rétrograde”, mal adaptée au monde moderne, rétif aux consignes anglo-saxonnes, la France apparaît comme le pays le plus agréable du monde avant la crise comme pendant la crise. Peut-être ses défauts sont-ils les véritables vertus? Voici le passage qui lui est consacré.

«For the fifth year running, France takes first in our annual Quality of Life Index. No surprise. Its tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world's best health care.

»France always nets high scores in most categories. But you don't need number-crunchers to tell you its bon vivant lifestyle is special. Step off a plane and you'll experience it first-hand.

»I always wish quality of life indicators could measure a country's heart and soul. But it's impossible to enumerate the joy of lingering for hours over dinner and a bottle of red wine in a Parisian brasserie. Or strolling beside the Seine on a spring morning, poking through the book vendors' wares. Or buying buttery croissants in bohemian Montmartre...hearing Notre Dame's bells...walking antique streets paved with poetry.

»Romantic Paris offers the best of everything, but services don't fall away in Alsace's wine villages...in wild and lovely Corsica...in lavender-scented Provence. Or in the Languedoc of the troubadors, bathed in Mediterranean sunlight.

»Provincial French properties are often keenly priced and lifestyles are less expensive than Paris. The Southwestern Midi-Pyrenees region is a particularly good hunting ground for village homes for less than $100,000—and classic three-course lunches for $14. Houses cascade with wisteria blossom; outdoor markets are everywhere. Foie gras, pink garlic, Armagnac, and crystallized violets aren't gourmet fare for locals. Rather, just another day's shopping.»

Derrière la France, et dans l’ordre: l’Australie, la Suisse, l’Allemagne, la Nouvelle-Zélande, le Luxembourg, les USA, la Belgique, le Canada, l’Italie, la Norvège… Les sources de International Living pour établir son classement:

«We used the following sources to compile the data for our 2010 Quality of Life Index: UNESCO Statistical Yearbook; Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties; United States Department of Commerce; U.S. State Department; The United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention; The Freedom House Survey; Statistical Abstract of the United States; The World Factbook; The World Almanac and Book of Facts; U.S. Department of State Indexes of Living Costs Abroad, Quarters Allowances, and Hardship Differentials; The World Health Organization; The Economist World in Figures. And, we ask our editors from around the world to comment on our official findings to give a more realistic view of the numbers.»

“Le flâneur”