The hidden side to French suburban living

CUTTING THROUGH farmland in a regional nature park, the approach to La Chapelle-en-Vexin is dominated not by its 12th-century chapel but by newly built two-storey homes. With their dormer windows, sloping tiled roofs and neatly hedged gardens, houses on such offer a French version of American suburban life: play space for children, a deck for the barbecue, and—crucially—off-street parking. In this village of just 333 inhabitants, an off-plan three-bedroom house with a garage is on sale for €260,000 ($320,000)—the same as a gloomy bedsit in central Paris.Only 65km (40 miles) separate La Chapelle-en-Vexin from the cobbled boulevards of the French capital. Both belong to the greater Paris region, Île-de-France. Yet daily concerns could not be more different.