The village of Ardara, Co Donegal has French connections - a French GP, a French B&B, and since last month, a French restaurant. The proprietor and chef of L'Atlantique, Cyrille Troesch, had already spent nine months in Ireland at Mount Juliet in Kilkenny and before that had worked at a number of Michelin three-star restaurants in France.
The 25-year-old chef plans to make Donegal his home. He says it is the friendliness of the people and the relaxed way of life that appeal to him. "In France now, people are a bit more closed, and they are under a lot of pressure, but here they take it very easy."
Cyrille gives the example of tradesmen who turn up two days after the appointed time, or who forget to turn up at all - a characteristic some of the natives might not find so endearing in their fellow countrymen.
A Frenchman who has had much longer to acclimatise is Paul Chatenoud, who runs the Green Gate B&B at Ardvally, a couple of miles from Ardara.
The Green Gate is not your ordinary B&B. Apart from stunning views over the Atlantic, visitors experience the low ceilings and whitewashed walls of an authentic Donegal cottage. Paul has converted an old cottage and outbuildings into modern accommodation. He bought the cottage in the late 1980s and started the B&B five years ago, having first sold his apartment on Ile St Louis in the centre of Paris with its views over the Seine and Notre Dame. He also gave up his specialist music bookshop which he ran nearby. "When I sold my apartment, all my friends said I was mad, but I never regretted it for one second," he says.
Now in his 50s, Paul says it is the warmth and friendliness of his neighbours that keep him here. "People are always ready to help you. They think of you first and of themselves after. I have never seen that anywhere else."
About a third of his guests are French and another third American. Most of his Irish customers are from Belfast or Dublin.
Paul says it is the range of visitors of different nationalities, ages and backgrounds that makes his task as host enjoyable. The visitor book bears this out - guests range from a Parisian professor to an American prison officer.