Tweedpipe

For all those living here, I wonder how many know what is France's 6th biggest city in terms of population?

Touraine

I went into a pub just off Regent Street last week and a would say that a quarter of the clientele were French and speaking French. Wired......having been away from the UK for so long. I am guessing it is London.

audio

A quick Google confirms you are correct.
The next time a French person says ‘there are a lot of English here’, I will refer to this:
London, France's sixth biggest city - BBC News

InVinoVeritas

I've quoted this many times to my French friends. It's impressive but, between us, it's fallacious as the BBC's figures are not calculated in the same way as INSEE's , if they were London would be around 11th.

Touraine

It has always been the case that there are more French people living/working in the UK than there are Uk nationals living/working in France. The thing is that in the UK 'French expats' are treated on equal terms as a UK national....especially in terms of employment. Not at all the same in France where life is made as hard as possible for expats and the employment market is closed out. It is very sad really given that France likes to remind everyone that they invented the EU.

But having said that, the French integrate well in the UK whereas (lets be honest) the majority of Uk nationals look like a fish out of water living in France. They don't really blend in very well.

Tweedpipe

Indeed the argument of London being France's 6th biggest city is interesting, and certainly a controversial claim. Here's another interesting related article.
After seeing yesterdays midday FR2 news bulletin on the subject, the discussion here at home started when Mme stated she'd like to spend a long spring weekend holiday in London, to which I replied, "Wouldn't you prefer to go somewhere English speaking like the Dordogne?"
Funny old world isn't it?

bigglesworth

When SWMBO came back from London last week she did say what a relief it was to go into Leclerc and hear people speaking English again.

Separately, for those who find the French morose, this should cheer them up
France has become a giant self-pitying museum - Telegraph