This French City Will Surprise You With Its Livability, Walkability, and Beauty

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I’m Suzi, I’m American, and I’ve been living in Dijon, France since 2008. I decided to visit Besançon, a hidden gem of a city just one hour away that currently ranks 2nd in France. In this comprehensive comparison, I spent two days exploring Besançon to see how it stacks up against Dijon. From affordable housing, to excellent walkability, clean air quality, and outstanding student satisfaction rates (94.74% of students in Besançon would recommend it), Besançon surprised me with its perfect balance of urban amenities and small-city charm. The city offers TGV connections to Paris and other major cities, a modern, comfortable tram system, bike sharing, car sharing, and cultural attractions including the famous Citadelle and other museums. Whether you’re planning to retire in France, study in France, or relocate to eastern France, this honest comparison covers everything from housing costs to quality of life factors to help you decide which French city might be perfect for your new life abroad and will encourage you to consider both Dijon and Besançon as possible destinations.

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OTHER WEBSITES MENTIONED:
Ville de Rêve city rankings: https://www.villedereve.fr/
Besançon travel guide: https://imperfectidealist.com/besancon-france-travel-guide/
Tensiomètre locatif: https://www.locservice.fr/tensiometre/
Walkability score data: https://www.ffrandonnee.fr/Media/Default/Documents/PLACEAUXPIETONS_2023_DP_RESULTATS_BAROMETRE_VILLES-VILLAGES-MARCHABLES.pdf

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Chapters
0:00 Introduction to Besançon
05:13 Housing Costs
07:23 Livability Factors
08:54 Transportation & Accessibility
13:30 The Intangibles
14:52 The Verdict

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Here on my channel, I talk a lot about Djon, the lovely French city I’ve lived in since 2008. But there’s another city a little over an hour away that has recently outranked Djon in terms of overall quality of life. So, I came here to try to learn more so that I could share what I learned with you. Come with me today as we explore the city of Bzon so we can compare the two and see how Bzon stacks up to my adopted city of Djon. Not just for a short visit, but for a place to actually live. Even though Bison may be less wellknown than Djon, it really does rank well in terms of overall comparisons like this comparison from the website V de Rev whose entire vocation appears to be to rank the best cities to live in in France. Bison is currently ranked second in the large and medium city category behind only the much much more expensive NC and Djon ranks seventh in this list. Still a respectable spot but behind Bzon nonetheless. I’m Susie. I’m American and I’ve been living in Djon since 2008. And I love living in Djon. I’ve talked about it extensively here on my channel. But I always try to point out in the videos that I make about Djon that I’m sure that there are other cities in France that are on par with Djon that are just as pleasant and just as nice of places to live as Djon. And one that immediately came to mind in terms of a comparison for me anyway was Bzon. Bzon is sort of Djon’s rival. It’s also located here in Eastern France. although closer to the Swiss border and it has a population of about 120,000 people. Why are Djon Bzon rivals? Well, you have to know a little bit about the history. Um, if we go back to recent history just to 2016, that was when the two regions of Burgundy, so Borggonian French, of which Don’s the capital merged with the region of Fronte, which the capital of which historically has always been Bzon. So um in 2016 these two regions merged to create one region called Bernche and Djon is in fact the administrative capital of this new larger region. I think when Djon was chosen over Bon as the capital of the new bigger region Borggon Fonte it ramped up the rivalry a little bit but I would consider it more of a friendly rivalry than anything else. So just a little note on pronunciation. So the city is bzon and because of the sad the little hook under the c the c is actually pronounced like an s like in other French words for example like so bzon so it’s not a hard c like in other French words for example the city of m the c in m does not have the cd so it’s not pronounced like an s it’s pronounced like a hard c and people who live here are called bzont or bzontin and this is also these are also the adjectives that are used to describe people and things products for example from this city. So in this video we’re going to compare Djon and Bon in terms of livability in general. So we’re going to talk about the cost of living here. We’re going to look at the cost of real estate for example. We’re also going to talk about other factors like walkability and air quality connectivity to other big cities. And we’ll also talk about some of the intangible features of the two cities as well. But before we get started, I just wanted to mention that you can sign up for my email list if you’d like to get more practical information about life in France like this delivered directly to your email inbox. You can use the QR code here on the screen by scanning it or you can click on the link in the video description below as well. For a little comparison of Bzon, during the two days I spent walking around Bison trying to get a feel for the city, I mainly stayed in the compact walkable historic downtown. Most of the historic city center is located inside this almost complete loop that the Du River makes around the city center. Bzon’s population of about 120,000 makes it France’s 33rd largest city. Big enough to support good urban services while maintaining that livable feel. DJon is slightly bigger with a population of about 160,000 which makes it France’s 17th biggest city but they feel relatively similar in scale to me. Like DJ Viera outside the historic city center provides amenities such as a big shopping center and more modern housing developments. Over the course of the two days I was visiting, I was trying to think about what makes a city a great place to live and focus on those things as I was walking around. Djour, my city is great for many reasons that I’ve come to appreciate over the 17 years that I’ve lived here and which I’ve talked about a lot on this channel already. With only 2 days in Bzon, I knew I could only get a superficial idea of what the city is really like. But I wanted to focus not on tourist attractions, but on quality of life measures. Check out this blog if you’re looking to visit Bzon for a few days and you want to hit the main tourist attractions. Lily does an amazing job of giving ideas of things to see and do there. I linked to her article in the video description below. Okay, back to the matter at hand. Let’s start with something of the utmost importance. Cost of housing. According to Mayor Ajon, the French real estate website, buying an apartment in either city is quite comparable in terms of price per square meter, €2519 per square meter in Bison compared to €2594 per square meter meter in Djon. Whereas houses are significantly cheaper in Bisau, €2,367 per square meter versus €3,82 per square meter in Djon. I was surprised. I thought Bzonal would be significantly cheaper than Djon. And then I checked the rents and they were pretty comparable, too. As I was walking around, I stopped to check out rental and sales listings in several real estate agencies windows, and the prices seemed to range depending, I imagine, on location and quality of the properties, but the prices seemed reasonable by my sensibilities. I imagine they’ll both seem affordable to those of you who have experience with real estate prices in bigger French cities. I had heard that Bzanso was ranked as the second best city in France to be a student with 94 74% of students recommending it for studies compared to Djon’s 91.75%. And I had assumed that this was in part due to what I thought would be more affordable housing in Bzon. And then it occurred to me maybe it’s not necessarily cheaper housing, but maybe it’s just easier to find a place to rent in Bzanson. So looking more closely at the data from the survey about where the best place is to be a student, Bzon scored nine out of 10 in terms of its demo or housing supply whereas the information for Djon was behind a payw wall. So I decided to check the metalif which provides data about housing supply and demand and in both Djour and Bzanso the rental market appears to be very competitive for renters. So, the two cities appear to be pretty much on par here. In any case, kudos to Bzono and Djon for being pleasant places for students. I can see how Bzono must be a very pleasant place to study. Moving on to livability factors, let’s start with walkability. The experience of walking around Bzon for 2 days was lovely. There are parks everywhere. There are hidden little courtyards and squares to explore. And I think I often forget how pleasant it is to have a river running through the city until I find myself in a city with a river. I’ve talked about how quiet downtown Djon is and I absolutely had the same impression in Bzon. For one thing, a lot of the city center is car-free. There are some vehicles, um, public transportation vehicles, the tram and some buses, but most of the downtown area is pedestrianized or a lot of the downtown area is pedestrianized. And then there’s also all of that park space and the river banks, which just makes it very pleasant and very calm. In terms of data, in a 2023 study on walkability of French cities and towns, which I will link to in the video description below, both Djon and Bon were in the same category in terms of size, and Bzon finished second, while Djon finished third. Both of them had a Pluto Fever or quite favorable rating of C, which leaves room for improvement. But I can tell you based on my experience, walking around both the historic city centers is very pleasant. But I see why It’s the river. I saw lots of people jogging and biking along the river as well as just kind of hanging out and relaxing. And so I think I have to give Bison the edge here. Moving on to public transportation. In Bzanson, their city transport system is called Jenko or Genko, which provides bus and tram services and appears to manage the bike share program as well. The prices are similar to Djon. I hopped on the tram at one point to try it out and I was able to pay with my debit card right in the tram the same way that you can pay for the tram here in Djon. In terms of public transportation, I found the cities to be quite similar. Bizo has a new tram system like here in Djour, but in Bolo, the entire public transportation system is free for everyone on Saturdays and for everyone aged 14 and under all the time. That’s amazing. I love the tram here in Djon and I was equally charmed by the tram in Bzansaw. It’s so cute and it was often tastefully adorned with info about events that are going on around the city. The one thing I couldn’t get over was how the tram and Bzol seemed to gracefully add a modern element to the attractiveness of the city. The tram in Bzon crossed the river over several bridges, but this spot in particular totally transfixed me. I loved watching the tram cross the river among these trees. We don’t have anything comparable here in Djon. Our tram crosses a few bridges, but never this beautifully. I was very impressed. I noticed they have a bike share program here as well called Veo City. And it’s even possible to choose an electric bike among the public bikes in Bzono. Granted, with all the hills in Bzono, having access to electric assistance surely makes biking around so much easier. We have public bikes in Djon called Vid, but none of them are electric. Plus, in Bzono, I noticed the same city’s car sharing system that we have here in Djon. I don’t know how satisfied the Bizontan and the Bizantine are with their public transport system and with their bike infrastructure, but assuming the system works well and serves much of the city efficiently, I might have to give Bzon the point here as well. Bison Bizontin, let us know in the comments below what you think of your public transportation system. In terms of air quality, I have an update on Djon’s ranking. I just recently did a video in which I talked about how Djon was ranked third in France for air quality. Well, I was just searching for that same data to compare to Bison for this video, and it seems a new data set was just published last week, and Djon is no longer so close to the top. Djon now appears to be 22nd out of 68 French cities, or 116th out of 761 in Europe, compared to Bzon, which is two spots lower among French cities and 120th overall in Europe. Both are good, but Djon has a slight edge here. My impression while I was in Bzon was certainly that the city itself was very clean, including the air, but the data gives Djon a slight edge here. I noticed planting efforts in Bzono that were very attractive and I think Djon might consider copying these efforts. DJ has been trying to plant more trees, I think, in an effort to improve air quality, um, especially downtown, but maybe they should consider these types of urban planting initiatives as well. In terms of accessibility to the rest of the world in terms of international travel, Bzanson faces the same challenge as Djon. The nearest commercial airport is Dole which is about 31 miles away which is actually sort of right in between Djon and Bzanson and there are very few flights out of Dole anyway. For more international departures there are Leon, Geneva, Zurich and Paris airports which all require significant travel from both Djon and Bono. So I would have to say that’s a tie. However, the train connectivity to Bismo is excellent. There is a train station right in downtown basically called Bisviet with many local trains. When I was there, this regional train was leaving for Djon and I played around on the ticket distributor to see how I could get to Leon and Paris and Marles from Bison and all of those trips passed through Djon. However, there’s a second TIV or high-speed train station right outside of town. And there are many more direct trains to lots of very appealing destinations like Strasbour, Paris, Marles, Niss, Mlier, and even Frankfurt. Moving on to intangibles. The local people here are reputed to be extremely friendly. And I can confirm that the people I interacted with while I was there were very friendly and the Bizonta people that I’ve met during my time living here in France have also been very kind. Both cities have central covered markets. Bzon wasn’t as busy as what I’m used to in Djon, but it was charming nonetheless. The market also spread out onto this central square plus de revolution where other vendors were also selling their goods and Bulo has several impressive museums but according to what I saw you have to pay to visit them whereas all of the museums in Djon are free. There are great concert venues in Bzilo as well including La Rodia which is right on the river. I’ve been to a concert there before. It’s amazing. Here in Djon, we have nice concert venues, too, but again, nothing that’s as spectacular in a sense as what they have in Bizon, thanks to the physical beauty of the city. I noticed signs for free summer concert series going on in and around Bzanson. And of course, there is the famous Sitadel, which you also have to pay to access, but which I have visited several times over the years, and it is fascinating, fun, and beautiful. It’s probably a tossup here as well, but I might give Djon the point since the museums here are free. So, how do these cities compare? Here is my honest take. I would suggest that you really consider Bzels if you prefer a slightly smaller more intimate city feel or if you prefer natural beauty, gorgeous, lush mountainous backdrops and a lovely river running through your city for example over architectural wonders which is really DJ’s strength. And I would choose TJ if you prioritize better air quality for example or if you want to be in the regional administrative capital. My personal takeaway is that I had a great time exploring Bansaw. It reminded me that there are treasures close to home that I still need to continue exploring around here as well. I could absolutely imagine living in Biso myself. And for anyone who may be thinking about spending an extended period of time in France, this also offers great value without sacrificing quality of life and might be worth taking a closer look at if what I’ve shown you appeals. Let me know if there are any other French cities that you would like me to compare. Let me know in the comments below. Also, I’m curious, what other cities are you considering moving to here in France or visiting for a longer period of time, for example. Um, also just another quick reminder to sign up for my email list by using the QR code here or by clicking on the link in the video description below if you’d like to receive more practical information about life in France delivered directly to your email inbox. And if you want more information on Djon, the city that I’ve lived in for over 17 years, I have a whole playlist here on my channel that you can check out. There’s lots more information about Djon, so check that out as well. Thank you so much for watching today and until the next time, abento.