november-2010

110 METROPOLITAN
THE FRENCH
For decades Britons have crossed the Channel in search of a better life. But what is
prompting record numbers of their Gallic neighbours to settle in the UK? Christian Koch
meets the expats enjoying life in the London enclaves that will be forever France
Flashing tongue studs and necking bottles of cider,
a cluster of 16-year-olds skulk in the streaky twilight on
London’s Bute Street, talking in strange, hybrid accents
about lunching in New York with Lourdes (daughter of
Madonna) Leon, fraternising with Nicolas Sarkozy’s son
and how they’ll soon be kicked out of their school because
they can’t meet its impossibly high standards.
They’re a curious breed, these precocious teens, fl itting
from Sloaney English to impeccable French. But then, the
pupils at South Kensington’s Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle
are no ordinary students. Not only are they among the most
fortunate scholars in the country (the school’s British section
was ranked 15th in the Financial Times league tables), but as
the progeny of London’s burgeoning French expat community
they are heirs to a bustling social milieu unlike any other
on the planet.
Earlier in the day the pavement cafés on Bute Street (aka
“Frog Alley”) are abuzz. The yummy-maman brigade sip
coffee, wearing Dior shades and gossiping in French, while
shopkeepers dispense friendly bonjours and businessmen
shuffl e past clutching copies of Le Monde. Welcome to the
centre of London’s 300,000-strong French community.
London now has more French people than ever before;
in French-population terms, it is one of France’s largest
cities. Having deserted their homeland due to poor job
opportunities and an entrenched, ageing workforce, and
drawn by an international schooling system and improved
travel links (only two hours by Eurostar), the French have
discovered that London can be very habitable. In 2007 Nicolas
Sarkozy exhorted “France’s children” to come back, after
many well-educated French youngsters joined the invasion.
“There’s a belief that London is a land of opportunity,
and if you work hard then anything is possible,” says
Patricia Connell, founder of franceinlondon.com, a guide
to French products and services in the capital. “Some are
sent by their companies; others come for adventure. It’s like
the American gold rush.”
Aside from France’s high unemployment fi gures (10.1%),
it’s the unstuffy, meritocratic nature of British workplaces
that lures many to the city. “In France you have to put your
picture and address on your CV. If you live in certain suburbs
of Paris, they’ll discount you for a job,” explains Connell.