Millau 52nd “small town” in France where life is good, why the city of gloves has lost 43 places ?

Millau fait partie des villes de France où il fait bon vivre. Midi libre – Illustration

Chaque année, un classement symbolique est établi par le site villedereve.fr. L’occasion de faire le point sur les critères observés et notés à Millau.

Is life good in Millau ? The question can divide depending on the points of view and expectations of each. Each year, the site villedereve.fr establishes the ranking of the municipalities where life is good. Several categories exist such as that of “small municipalities” where the city of the glove is ranked 52nd/4,039 (72nd in the ranking of all French cities). At first glance, this ranking may seem satisfactory. But compared to 2024, this represents a drop of 43 places.

According to all the criteria that the specialized site observes, Millau excels in education, leisure, sport… and nature! In these areas, it has scores between 82 and 88 (out of 100). For sports, for example, 47 different federations are represented in Millau (data from the National Institute of Youth and Popular Education), 138 sports associations counted and a license rate of 25%. For this last figure, “Millau is in the high average of the grades”, indicates the site.

Schools are rated

For education, where Millau has an overall grade of 87/100, the site notes 55 nursery places for 100 children (source CAF 2022), the schools of the commune are rated at 18.5/20 (Ministry of National Education and Higher Education 2023), its vocational high schools at 14.9/20, middle schools at 15.2 and general and technological high schools at 13.6/20. “It is defined by the success rate of its students in the baccalaureate as well as the rate of honors, the added value of the high school (overall and on the success rate and honors in the baccalaureate). General and technological high schools in Millau have a score of 13.6/20. Overall, Millau is in the very good scores”, observes the site.

Heritage, a bad student

On the other hand, Millau is lacking in other areas, such as heritage where the overall score is 31/100, the worst among the 18 criteria observed by the site. Millau does not have any remarkable heritage sites. There are 16 in Aveyron to have this distinction (source Ministry of Culture 2024). On the other hand, the city has 13 historical monuments and 3 AOC or AOP (Bleu des causses, Roquefort and Côtes de Millau). Capital of the Pérail, it is still waiting for its IGP classification, which could increase its score.

0 pointed for cycling ?

Accessibility and transport are not a strength of the city of gloves. Millau is located far from the main train stations, 1 hour 23 minutes from a regional station (journey time by car), that of Rodez (source SNCF 2023) and 1 hour 33 minutes from a national station (Montpellier). Which therefore pushes it back 6 hours 43 minutes from major cities by train.

Another black spot, cyclability. Millau obtains a rate of… 0%! (source velo-territoires.org 2022). Enough to make Yannick Douls, elected representative for Mobility in Millau, jump. “According to the barometer of cycling cities, we have progressed between 2019 and 2021, argues the elected official. We have done things. Certainly, compared to other cities, we are certainly not going at the same speed, but we have improved cyclability, that is a fact. We must see how this data was obtained.” They take into account the ratio between the length of the so-called cycle path and that of the existing path, which is not necessarily updated online. In this same category, the cycling score for Millau, according to the Parlons Vélo cycling cities barometer, is 3/6, “in the average of the scores”, according to the site. Not everything is to be thrown away, but improvements can be made.

Finally, the climate is also poorly rated by the site villedereve.fr, with a score of 34/100. It notes poor visibility (12% according to 2020 weather data) and “rainfall” of 36%, a score established with in particular 54% of rainy days. Even so, Millau's score is 83.8/100 and although it has fallen in the ranking, the city has only lost one point compared to last year. It is still higher than the score of its neighbor, Rodez (81/100), which is always good to remember. All this data, although indicative of a trend, should be read with hindsight.

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