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I've just returned from a beautiful trip in Southern France, both cities (Toulouse, Carcassonne) and villages (Lavaur). Keeping the good old tradition, wanted to share with you some observations:
- Toulouse: obviously, city is mixed, having both visible minorities (maghrebis and negroes) as well as lots of other Europeans that aren't that different from locals to stick out completely. About 30-40% of people I saw looked typical French, 20% diversity and the other 40% pan (generally) Southern Europeans.
- Carcassonne: the ratio of minorities seemed higher. Even locals are Med shifted and not that different from Spaniards: only 20-30% of faces were recognizably French
- Lavaur: ethnic French obviously make up the great majority. 70-80% of people there had typical French look, but minorities exist even there.
Ethnic French look more or less same as those in Lyon and Paris: a mix of ancient Kelts (Keltic Nordid type, same as in Britain) with pre-Keltic inhabitants that probably looked like Southern Europeans today (Med-Alpine). The difference is that in Lyon and further North the former (KN) element is slightly stronger and there is also a notable Germanic influence which simply doesn't exist in southern countryside (Lavaur). Taking countryside as benchmark:
- some sort of arch-French nordo-med-alpine mix is in extreme majority (almost always in combination)
- grey/blue eyes occur in about 30-40% of people
- rosy light skin is strongly dominant
- brown hair is dominant in both children and adults
- 5-10% adults are naturally golden blonde
- Keltic looks or influences are omnipresent (hence a visible similarity to keltic looking Irish, who are largely a mix of KN and local CMs)
All of these observations confirm that ethnic French are a Central European people by definition, even in most Southern regions, similar to Hungarians. They are MUCH "darker" than the English but also MUCH lighter than Spaniards (exactly in the middle between the two).
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