Although the fishing town of Lavandou in the Var department of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur tops the list, 6 of the top 10 places go to resorts in the Pyrénées-Orientales.
In second place is Banyuls-sur-Mer, followed by Collioure, Canet-en-Roussillon, Port-Vendres and Argelès-sur-Mer. In 9th place is the village of Cerbère. They are all resorts in the Pyrénées-Orientales.
The comparison study was compiled by the French daily 'Le Figaro' from a list of 85 communes in the Mediterranean departments of Aude, Hérault, Gard, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Alpes-Maritimes and Pyrénées-Orientales.
They used 32 criteria grouped into 7 themes – health, commerce (number and diversity), safety and security, demography (size of elderly population), environment and climate, leisure activities and property prices.
The criteria are all quantitative, with each one given a coefficient to weigh their importance.
So, for health, the study measured life expectancy, as well as the number of doctors and chemists in the locality, with a coefficient of 7, the highest possible in the study, reflecting the perceived needs of retirees.
Crime levels in the area were given a coefficient of 4, whilst property prices only got a weighting of 1. Environment and climate had a coefficient of 3. Leisure received 2.
On this basis Lavandou got its first place mainly due to the level and range of commerce, the quality of leisure activities, and its health cover and life expectancy. Less strong was their safety ranking (25 out of 85 communes) and property prices (80 out of 85).
Top of the list in terms of environment and climate was Banyuls-sur-mer.
Other first places by theme were Bandol (Var) for health, Saint-Tropez (Alpes-Maritimes) for commerce, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (Alpes-Maritimes) for security, Valras-Plage (Hérault) for demographics, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) for leisure and Vendres (Hérault) for property prices.
Bottom of the list of 85 communes was Vallauris (Alpes-Maritimes). Some other notable places did not fare well. Toulon came in at number 84, Marseille at 78, Menton at 76, and Nice at 71.
The full report can be found at Méditerranée : le palmarès 2023 des villes où prendre sa retraite en bord de mer
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