VS’is a peaceful little village in Cantal, a secret place that can be discovered at the bend of a last bend on the departmental road 701, north of the Margeride forest massif. Soulages, its church, just restored, and its 80 souls. 80 privileged, because it is here that one breathes the purest air of the country.
Soulages actually ranks first in our air quality rankings, out of the 35,279 municipalities* in mainland France. The battle was tight with other surrounding villages, such as Rageade (2e) but also the Corsican challenger, Riventosa, nestled in the mountains not far from Corte. All these towns have concentrations of fine particles (PM 2.5) close to the latest recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Good students who owe their success to several factors: a weak industrial fabric, a low population density and therefore little road traffic, etc. Dunces, on the other hand, often have bad luck. Lille and Tourcoing, two of the cities of the North which occupy the last places in our ranking of the 100 largest cities, have to adapt to the presence of busy roads, a high population density and, to make matters worse, weather that does not favor the dispersion of pollutants.
Conversely, the cities of Occitania, such as Montpellier, Nîmes or Perpignan, which prance at the top of this ranking, can count on the providential help of the mistral and the tramontana, which regularly sweep the atmosphere. Nature is in places better made than elsewhere.
Delicate position of certain alpine valleys
If they are essential, the measures aimed at reducing polluting emissions do not explain everything, no offense to certain town councilors who will quickly brandish the classification of the Point to boast about their track record. The analysis of this list is more complex. But a small idea of the effect of the policies carried out at the local and national level can still be measured in the “Decrease” column of our dossier.
It reveals the evolution of fine particle pollution between 2009 and 2021. The good news is that it is falling everywhere in France. Again, there are good and bad students. For example, in Saint-Étienne, pollution has fallen by more than 55% in twelve years, compared to only 30% in Cherbourg…
Another surprise: the mountain air is not as pure as it seems. Our ranking of ski resorts reveals the delicate position of certain alpine valleys. Thus, around Mont-Blanc, Saint-Gervais is found at the 335e place on 338 stations and 34,932e in the general classification of all the municipalities of France. Chamonix does barely better: 314e station and 31,019e in the general classification.
Too late to change your winter vacation plans, but there’s still time to prepare those for this summer. In effect, Point also ranked all of the country’s seaside resorts. Each municipality with access to the sea, whether on the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea, is present in this list.
These are all the municipalities with a coastal area: a beach, a rocky coast, a dyke, etc. And, for those who are more fresh water than salt water, they can fall back on our classification of municipalities bordered by a lake. Finally, Point has also classified ten of the most beautiful French forests, including Brocéliande, Fontainebleau and also Chambord Park.
* Official list of municipalities at 1er January 2017. Some may have changed names since then. Eight are not inhabited and do not appear in our classification.