Hi, I live in Besançon so I can give you some insight. The university in Besançon is well-known for their language department. A lot of natives here do not speak English and basic knowledge of French is necessary to live here. The people here are super friendly too and once they find out you're a foreigner, they will strike up a conversation with you. Center city is super safe and other "iffier" areas like planoise or battant are still safe until sunset. I'm female and feel very safe in center city, even late at night. There are a lot of Muslims here and I've never seen any hate towards them and due to the language school there are a lot of Asians and the same goes for them. In fact, for a smaller city Besançon has a surprising amount of "ethnic" grocery stores which was great for me as a vegetarian as after some hunting around I could find any bean or spice I want that normally aren't sold in French stores like dhals, mung, garam masala, and chili peppers. As for working part-time as a translator, you probably wouldn't get many clients unless you have a strong online presence. It comes in hand with a city that has a lot of natives. In summer tour buses full of English people will show up for a month, but besides that it's not a huge tourist destination so companies and businesses here don't bother with that kind of stuff. Your best bet here would be to offer private English lessons. Except for the fact that it rains on average 11 days of the month, I absolutely love Besançon. For me, it's the perfect size, the people are friendly, and the food and wine is awesome. There is a ton of nature to enjoy here, too. Sorry I can't offer any insight on other cities!

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Thank you for the detailed description!

Unlike other cities, Besançon has more natives than foreign students. So, do you think it's better to live here than elsewhere? I think I would get a better hang of the culture and language here but would I have a problem with housing, transport or any other services?

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I haven't lived anywhere else in France besides Besançon so I can't say if it's better, but I love it here. University should help you with finding housing, it can be difficult but it's difficult every where in France according to people I talk to on expat forums. There are trams and buses that cover all of center city and most of the surrounding area as well and you can typically get free or cheap access to them through the University. If it's not included in your University fees, it's only 30ish euros/mo for unlimited rides. There should be enough English speaking people at the school to help you adjust, they seem to have a strong sense of community. I always see groups of them walking together and every Tuesday there is an international meet-up at the university café/pub to get together and talk and ask questions. I don't know much about it as I actually didn't come here as a student, but that's what I've seen in the past year of living here. It also helps that the locals are so friendly here. My husband and I hardly spoke French when we arrived and people practically bent over backwards trying to understand us, they appreciated that we tried hard to speak French and between our broken French, their broken English, and miming we managed to get by. His coworkers helped us a lot too, it just seems to be the way here. As for medical services, every doctor I've been to so far knows at least a little English plus a lot of medical terminology is similar so it's easier to understand so that's been all good too. Getting a cellphone plan was a little difficult though, we had to have a French person help us. As long as you're friendly you'll make French friends fast but you have to leave the shelter of the university. A lot of the university students have the habit of staying with the other exchange students which is great for support purposes but they end up not experiencing the culture or making French friends. If you just go out to a pub or bar with one other person, people will hear you speak English and strike up conversation.

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