Why Lunel?

This was the question we were asked often by French friends when we first arrived in France, and are still asked at regular intervals by French and English friends and acquaintances alike. We've been here over 2 years now and have no cause to regret our decision, so I thought we should try and explain both our reasons and the varied motives of the questioners!P

We started to come to France regularly in the early 90s following the twinning of our UK town Wirksworth with Die in the Drôme. After numerous visits we decided we'd like to live in the south of France when we retired, but that we'd prefer open skies to mountains. Unlike many people we know, we also wanted to live in a town with services we could walk to, not a remote village to and from which we'd have to drive to get food or medical attention. We wanted a fairly modern house, not one we'd have to restore or maintain a lot.P

Some of the French people we met found our decision to live in a place with a fairly high north African population hard to understand, but our experience of London, Nottingham and the UK in general had accustomed us to multi-cultural populations. Lunel has a mosque, some halal butchers and you often hear Arabic spoken in the streets and cafés. In many ways though, the more traditional culture - Occitan influences, everything connected with bulls and horses, the Spanish influence - seemed more unusual to us, but we have been fascinated to discover it all.P

For others, whether French or English, it is our choice of a comparatively urban setting that has been difficult to understand. This is of course just a matter of taste, but while we admire the beautiful rural retreats of many of our friends, we have already had many occasions to be thankful for the convenience of medical services at hand, and get more exercise walking or cycling around town every day than I think we would driving everywhere. We also know people who have struggled in emergencies through their relative isolation, and we wonder if in 20 years' time lifestyles which depend on cars will be sustainable, let alone environmentally sound.

Lunel is not a smart town, and many of our friends have I think consciously chosen prettier surroundings or more attractive local markets and shops. But this is a functional town, much of it quite old if still rather down-at-heel, growing fast and so with life and resources even in a recession, and new resources like the Médiatheque about to open on our doorstep. It's convenient for 2 (you could argue 3 or 4) airports, the Autoroute and the railway. But most of all, in a short time it has become home and we have good friends and neighbours here. No regrets, in other words.
P

The symbol of the town is the man fishing in the canal, the Pescalune. Only people born and bred here can describe themselves as 'pescalune', while we incomers are known as Lunellois. But I like to describe myself now as 'presquelune', hopefully becoming more identified with the town as the years go by!