The French Government has released regional crime figures for 2005, which show the Limousin to be the safe haven of France.

The Limousin region recorded only 11,000 crimes in the year, a figure half that of its closest rival, Auvergne.

Provence Cote d’Azur recorded 400,000 crimes and, whilst this was under half of the number of offences committed in the Ile de France, as measured against total population, they come out as crime top spot.

However, these figures do not measure the gravity of the crime and they disguise big differences within regions.

Thus, whilst the Midi-Pyrénées comes in 12th out of 22 regions, three departments within the region (Aveyron, Gers, Lot) record some of the best figures in the survey. The figures for the region are skewed by the poorer performance of the regional capital, Toulouse.

Similarly, whilst Languedoc-Roussillon has the third worst set of crime figures in the country, the Hérault has one of the lowest crime rates. Yet, the seaside resort of Agde in Hérault has a higher rate of crime anywhere in the country, outside of the capital. They recorded 189 crimes per 1000 population.

Other towns and cities with high crime rates were Deauville (142), Cannes (137), Avignon (132), Nice (126), Montpelier (124) and Marseille (121), all major tourist destinations.

The rate of crime in these cities is over twice that of the national average of 62 crimes per 1000 population, a figure that has been going down for the last six years.