Cost of Living in France for a British Family: What the Official Figures Say (2026)

How much does it cost a British family to live in France? There is no honest single number: it depends on the city, the home, whether the children are in a crèche or a canteen, and how you travel. What the official sources do give is the price of the building blocks. This guide collects those, with the date and place each one comes from, so you can add up your own case. I read each page on 20 October 2026. Nothing here is an average or an estimate of our own.

The reference point: the minimum wage

service-public.gouv.fr’s page on the SMIC (verified 1 June 2026) gives the legal minimum wage: 12.31 euros an hour gross, which the page converts to 1,867.02 euros a month gross and 22,404.20 euros a year gross. It gives the net amount as an indication: 9.74 euros an hour, 1,477.93 euros a month and 17,735.19 euros a year. It is a floor for pay, not a budget, but it puts the figures below in scale.

Housing

Rent is the biggest variable. The local rent observatories (observatoires locaux des loyers) publish rents measured in the private rental sector, by zone. I read their data on 20 October 2026 from the observatories’ own site. A zone can cover several districts or towns, so the figure is for the zone the observatory publishes for that city, not for a street.

Source: observatoires-des-loyers.org, local rent observatory data. Each row is the central zone of the city’s observatory, the dearest of its zones, and covers private-sector rented homes of all sizes, so it is a reference point, not a quote for a family-sized home. For the whole agglomeration the same observatories give lower medians: 11.9 euros per square metre in Toulouse and 12.8 in Bordeaux (2025), 12.7 in Lyon (2024).

For Paris, the Paris-region observatory publishes numbered zones. For 2025 the median rent per square metre ranges from 23 euros in zone 13 to 32.8 euros in zone 1. I did not read a monthly median for Paris.

For what a landlord can ask for and how deposits work, see renting in France as a British citizen. For buying instead, see buying property in France as a British buyer.

Healthcare

Once you are covered by the French public system, a doctor’s visit is partly reimbursed. ameli.fr (page dated 2 October 2026, fares applicable from 1 January 2026) says that a consultation with a GP in sector 1, within the coordinated care pathway, costs 30 euros, is reimbursed at 70%, and gives back 19 euros after the flat contribution is deducted. A sector 2 GP who has signed up to the controlled-fee option is also based on 30 euros. A sector 2 GP who has not signed up sets free fees, and the reimbursement is based on 23 euros, which gives back 14.10 euros.

The difference stays with you unless other cover pays it. ameli.fr’s page on the ticket modérateur, the part of the cost left to you, says a complementary health insurance can take it over in whole or in part, and that there are cases in which you pay none.

How to join the system as a British citizen depends on your situation: see the S1 form for UK pensioners.

Getting around: the Paris region example

Île-de-France Mobilités’ 2026 fares (published 10 December 2025, in force from 1 January 2026) give:

• Navigo monthly pass, all zones: 90.80 euros; zones 2 to 3: 88.80 euros; zones 3 to 4: 86.40 euros; zones 4 to 5: 84.40 euros.
• The same pass at 50% discount: 45.40 euros (all zones), and at a 75% solidarity discount: 22.70 euros.
• Annual Navigo, all zones: 998.80 euros (rates exclude subscription fees).
• Metro, train and RER ticket at full price: 2.55 euros; bus or tram ticket: 2.05 euros.

This covers the Paris region only. I did not read fares for other cities, which set their own.

School

service-public.gouv.fr’s page on primary school enrolment (verified 10 January 2025) says: no, enrolment in public elementary school is free. It adds that the cost of tuition at private elementary schools varies from one institution to another.

The canteen is a separate bill. The page on the primary school canteen (verified 23 November 2023) says the commune is responsible for it and is not obliged to provide one, that the price of a meal is set by the commune, that the commune may use the family quotient to adapt the price to your income and expenses, and that in some communes you can get help to pay canteen fees. So the figure depends on where you live.

For the practical side of school enrolment for British children, see UK qualifications and school enrolment in France.

Childcare

For a crèche (établissement d’accueil du jeune enfant) that follows the national scale, the Caf’s scale for 2026 sets an hourly rate from your resources. For collective care and micro-crèches the rate is 0.0619% of monthly resources per hour for one child, 0.0516% for two children and 0.0413% for three. The resources have a floor of 814.62 euros a month, which gives 0.50 euro an hour for a family with one child, and a ceiling of 8,500 euros a month, which gives 5.26 euros an hour. The Caf says the ceiling is not mandatory: a crèche manager can keep applying the rate above it if its rules say so.

I read a local Caf’s copy of the national scale. The page notes that the resources used are those recorded with the Caf, or, for families who are not Caf recipients, the taxable income on the tax notice. I did not read how income earned in the UK is counted, so ask the crèche or the Caf.

What this guide leaves out

I did not find an official figure for energy, groceries, complementary health insurance, car costs or most cities’ public transport, so none is given. A site that quotes you a monthly total for a British family in France is quoting its own estimate. Use the figures above, add quotes for the items that are missing, and check the specific commune.

Related guides for British readers

• Our guide to moving to France from the UK covers the whole move in the order you do it: the 90/180 rule, the long-stay visa, validation, healthcare, tax and driving.

FAQ

How much does it cost a British family to live in France?

No official source gives a family total. The building blocks above come from the observatories of rents, ameli.fr, Île-de-France Mobilités, service-public.gouv.fr and the Caf.

How much is rent in France?

It depends on the zone. The rent observatories’ 2025 medians in the central zone of each city were 15 euros per square metre in Toulouse and 15.1 in Bordeaux. Across the whole agglomeration they were lower: 11.9 in Toulouse and 12.8 in Bordeaux. In Paris they ran between 23 and 32.8 across the zones of Paris.

Is school free in France?

Public primary school enrolment is free, according to service-public.gouv.fr. The canteen is priced by the commune, and private schools set their own fees.

What does a GP visit cost?

30 euros at the standard sector 1 rate, with 19 euros reimbursed after the flat contribution, according to ameli.fr. A complementary insurance can cover part of the rest.

What does crèche cost?

It depends on income. The 2026 national scale gives 0.50 euro an hour at the floor and 5.26 euros an hour at the ceiling for a family with one child in collective care.

Is France cheaper than the UK?

None of the official pages I read compares the two countries, so this guide does not make that claim.