French (vs Canadian) Urban Form

I recently returned from a trip to France I thought I could write some observations on the contrast between French¹ and Canadian² urban forms.

I feel like the Canadian form is trying to imitate the English manor, with its large front yard of grass, while in France, those while the means actually have a château, rather than play at it! In Canada, this building form is maintained through “setbacks”³, while in France doesn’t seem to do these: in France, building are often built out to the property lines,⁴ and if a building isn’t on the property lines, a high fence is. This results in the distinctive “wall to wall” look of European cities.

The French seem to use the same general (upper) facade (see header image)⁵ regardless of actual building use, although the ground level will sometimes be replaced with large window when converted to retail or restaurants. This somewhat hides the density of a building: it could be a single family home, or eight (or thirty!) apartments, or a store with the owner’s apartment above it. Another “trick” is that there will be large double “doors” along the ground floor that can either be the entry to an inner courtyard, a parking garage, or entry door to the apartment stairs!

There are French “suburbs” that don’t have this same facade, but even there the high, property-line fences and lack of setbacks remain.

One downside of this is that informal greenspace can be rare in France. Grass (pelouse) can sometimes be found in urban parks, but half the time it seems there’s a sign to “stay off the grass”!

As for a conclusion, if Canadian cities wanted to improve density, I wonder how much could be gained by doing away from front and side setbacks.