Provence: market towns, hot summers, and Paris by fast train

The expat scene: Aix is where the English-speaking crowd gathers. The Anglo-American Group of Provence claims more than 400 members across Aix and nearby towns, with dinner groups, book clubs and walking clubs each month. There's also an International Women's Club of Aix and a Facebook group called Americans in Provence. Out in the Luberon, villages like Ménerbes, Bonnieux, Lacoste and Gordes have enough foreign residents that an English-speaking neighbor is a fair bet.

Healthcare: Once you're a legal resident, you'll register with CPAM, get a carte vitale, and choose a médecin traitant, the GP who refers you to specialists. The local public hospital is the Centre Hospitalier du Pays d'Aix, with sites in Aix and Pertuis, 946 beds, emergency departments at both, maternity care, and specialties including cardiology, neurology, oncology and geriatrics. Marseille's university hospitals are nearby for more complex care.

Schools: The International Bilingual School of Provence in Luynes, just south of Aix, teaches from preschool through the last year of high school in French and English and offers both the French baccalaureate and IB programs. Lycée International Georges Duby, also in Luynes, is a free public high school whose English section prepares students for the OIB, the international option of the French baccalaureate.

Remote work: Home internet runs about $35 a month. Provence is six hours ahead of New York for most of the year, so an afternoon meeting on the East Coast lands in your evening. When clients want you in person, Paris is under three hours by TGV.

Limited mobility: Aix's historic center is mostly flat, but cobblestones and old paving make some streets rough going, and the Diablines shuttles don't take wheelchairs. Métropole buses show a wheelchair logo when they have a ramp and a reserved space. For door-to-door trips, the lebus+ on-demand service uses vehicles with ramps or lifts; it's open to holders of a French mobility inclusion card marked "disability" with a rating above 80%. The hill villages are steep and often stepped, so if mobility matters, look at flatter parts of Aix near a bus line.

Retirement: Aix works well for retirees who want sun, a hospital in town and a train to Paris. A couple spends about $3,500 a month. Winter is milder than most of the U.S. but still cool, with January highs averaging near 53F and lows near 39F. France's route for retirees is the long-stay visitor visa, which we walk through on our France retirement visa page. Our guide to moving to France covers taxes and healthcare in depth, and the retirement visa hub compares other countries.