Just in case there wasn’t enough in the world to be miserable about at the moment, the BMC has just released a report on depression levels around the world - and it seems that France is the most depressing country of all!
I suppose it’s some kind of achievement to win the ‘best country to live in’ award and also come top for ‘most depressing country to live in’ both in the same year. It tends to suggest that you’ll either be in a constant state of happiness living here, or horribly miserable.
Or perhaps you will just have violent mood swings between the two, according to whether you are spending the day sitting by the pool (not stressful I hope) or trying to get a refund from your local URSSAF department (a guaranteed cause of high blood pressure and stress).
Of course, the only way to find out which you category you will fall in is to actually live here. Hope for the best but have medication to hand just in case?
Anyone who knows France will realise the numbers are likely to be wrong – the reality is that French people like to think they are sick and like to take more prsecription drugs than other nations – but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are more sickly, just that they are a nation of hypochondriacs.
All the same, if you are looking to avoid depression the results of the survey seem clear. Move to a low-income country such as China or India, get married (single life is also said to be more depressing), and you will spend your entire life in a blissfully happy state.
Perhaps to prove how wrong it is to suggest that France is in a state of depression, one of our local towns (Monpazier) is cheering us up at the moment with an ‘outdoor art work’ that consists of large pictures of local individuals being stuck on the sides of lots of the buildings.
You can decide for yourself if they show whether the French are happy or not…
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