When video games maker Ubisoft was scouting for a location for a new studio, executive Julien Mayeux pushed for the booming city of Bordeaux in south-west France because he knew it would be easy to recruit there.

“Bordeaux came out on top when we asked our employees where they wanted us to go,” he said of France’s fifth biggest urban area, which boasts fine weather, cheaper housing than Paris and a thriving tech scene. Mayeux now runs an office staffed by about 400 engineers and game designers in a trendy revitalised port neighbourhood.

Just over an hour away by car or train, Sainte-Foy-la-Grande could not be more different. The small medieval town on the Dordogne river once prospered in an economy anchored by wine production, but is now one of the poorest communes of mainland France.