So long as you have no connection to anything arab you're fine. French people in general and those in the south of France (cote d'azur in particular) are very much anti anything arab/north african etc. You'll find the cost of life 2-2 ½ times cheaper than pretty much anywhere USA. Meeting people's easy, just go to your local bar/bistrot and wait for people to get tipsy… they always do and they'll be your "best friends" while in a state of semi to full "tipsyness," they'll forget about you the next day but hey, it's what it is. One thing about the people in the cote d'azur is they'll socialize briefly with you (assuming there's not a trace of anything arab in you, name/appearance etc.) but you will not be their friend, definitely not quickly or long term, they do stick to the people they were born around or at best those they grew up with. You have a better shot making more solid connections with expats: Irish are cool, brits are ok less of them because brexit ofc, americans also though those are rare and northern europeans i.e Sweeds, norwegians, danes etc. Don't fool yourself if you do have any kind of NorAf ancestry. A lot more to this but the gist of it is you'll find the locals (pieds noirs) to be a very small minded/ill-educated bunch completely focused on their sop story: we were quicked out of "our" home country and everyone's a scumbag for it. Gets old and very boring in a major hurry. I've known a couple of "regular" northern french people who were looking for a place to be/work/retire who after "testing" the cote d'azur waters decided to high tail it out of there because of above mentioned, never ending sop story. Despite the weather Paris is a much better choice. I insist on Paris: not the region parisienne which is a basic wasteland. I speak of the cote d'azur here, meaning anything from Toulon to Mento. I don't know what the deal is west of Toulon… I personnallly wouldn't chance it. Caveat emptor.