13 Intriguing Truths About Life in France’s Medieval Villages
France’s medieval villages look almost unreal in photos. Stone walls, crooked beams, tiny streets, soft colors, you see them online and wonder if real people actually wake up in places like that! They do, and daily life there is a mix of charm, routine, and very real modern habits you’d never guess from a postcard.
1. The Houses Are Old but Cozy
People live in homes built in the 1100s, 1400s, 1600s. Inside you find heating, modern bathrooms, working kitchens, and high-speed internet. But floors tilt, doors sit at weird angles, and beams shift with the seasons. You learn to love walls that lean like they’re listening to your conversations.
2. Summers Hit Harder Indoors
Old stone keeps winter cold out, but summer heat stays trapped. Upstairs rooms get scorching. Fans become best friends. Many locals say medieval houses stay beautiful, but not always comfortable, when the temperatures rise.
3. Renovation Is Its Own Epic Quest
Exterior work comes every ten to twenty years. Some homes follow strict preservation rules: no nails in old woodwork, no painting walls another color, no modernizing exterior features, and no using fireplaces that have stood untouched for centuries.
People manage it but it takes patience, approvals, and sometimes a deep breath.
4. Public Transport Isn’t Saving You
Once you leave major cities, buses and trains thin out. Brittany struggles with rural connections. Provence has villages scattered across hills where nothing is walkable. Cars rule the countryside.
People drive 20-40 minutes for groceries, cafés, school runs, hospitals, movies, or work. Even grabbing a simple lunch out often means a drive to the nearest bigger town. Some find it peaceful, but others call it endless.
5. The “Pretty Part” Is Only 5% of the Town
The frame you see online always hides the LIDL behind the church, the McDonald’s near the fortifications, and the giant tire shop next to the 15th-century houses. A medieval village can have ramparts on one side and a 1970s concrete block on the other.
6. Rain Changes Everything
Sunny medieval streets glow. Cloudy ones can turn dull, dark, and heavy. Some villages like Locronan or Rochefort-en-Terre still shine, but most lose the fairytale gloss the second the sky turns gray.
7. Some Villages Feel Like a Movie Set
Éze, Riquewihr, and the Cité of Carcassonne get packed. Souvenir shops, day-trippers, guided tours, and people pressing into every doorway. Locals point out that you sometimes have to lock your door because tourists try to open random ones “just to see.”
On the other hand, some villages like Bernay in Normandy barely notices visitors. Life goes on – school, errands, work, market day, evening walks.
8. Jobs Are Completely Normal
Residents work as nurses, teachers, doctors, public servants, tech employees, architects, farmers, vineyard workers, truck drivers, artists, hospitality workers, construction workers, and everything in between.
Some commute to Strasbourg or Toulouse. Some work online. Some run a medieval-era bakery that now sells pastries on Instagram.
9. Amenities Depend on the Region
Most villages still have basics: bakery, butcher, pharmacy, post office, restaurants, small groceries, and weekly markets. Some towns have hospitals and train stations.
Others struggle to keep doctors or essential services. Dordogne has stunning villages but fewer jobs. Alsace has beauty and industry. Normandy has many medieval towns that operate year-round.
Around Paris, Chantilly and Senlis mix old streets with fast trains into the city.
10. Fiber Internet Fights Thick Walls
Many rural zones now have fiber installed right to the house. But medieval stone kills Wi-Fi. People end up with routers on every floor or cables running through 500-year-old beams. The internet is fast. The signal… not always.
11. Winters Are Calm, Dark, and Extremely Quiet
Summer is lively, full of cafés, markets, and outdoor life. Winter evenings can feel almost hollow. The village sleeps early. Streets empty out. Some people love the peace while others call it “atmospheric but depressing.”
12. Second-Home Owners Change the Rhythm
In Dordogne and many other regions, lots of old houses belong to Belgians, English, Germans, and Swiss who use them as vacation homes. Off-season, entire streets can feel half-empty. In summer, they fill up again with families, kids, and rented bicycles.
13. Medieval Streets Aren’t Kind to Cars
Driving up a stone alley just wide enough for a donkey isn’t fun. Parking is scarce. Delivering groceries can become a puzzle.
Some villages restrict car access completely. In Carcassonne, residents deal with strict rules and millions of visitors passing through their street each year.
14. History Sits in Everyday Life
You walk to the bakery past a 1270 tower, an old monastery, or a Roman ruin that now borders someone’s garden. In some places, cows still live in part of a private castle’s ground floor.
Families stroll on ramparts where soldiers once stood. People grow up around these things and stop noticing them. Visitors are stunned but locals shrug and go buy bread.