French Bank Account for UK Resident - Any Recommended Banks

My broad reaction is why do it. I had a second home / hovel in France for ten years and lived there for eight.

Possibly the worst choice depending on where you open the account is Credit Agricole Brit Line. French banking is more devolved than UK banking and a lot depends on the quality of your relationship manager.  You may or may not be able to have the debit card sent to a UK address. You will certainly pay an annual fee for one, and about 25 years behind the UK cheques without a debit card or indeed cheques at all are rarely accepted.

My current position is

Halifax Clarity Credit card which charges zero per cent on the exchange rate in contrast with HSBC which charges 2.99% on debit and credit cards and 1% on transfers to euro accounts.

WeSwap card which I preload with cash, loose a week while the 0% transfer takes place, and then use to draw cash at ATMs through out Europe. 

Based on latest experience I would suggest having yor friends introduce you at the bank they use. You will still need passport, 3 years UK statements, utility bills, birth certificate and evidence of subsequent changes of name.

In know all about cheque du bois. You would be surprised how often it actually happens.

Last visit this spring a number of the hotels we stayed at simply would not take cheques.

It might also be worth considering approaching a "UK" bank that can provide foreign currency accounts, eg Citibank or HSBC, though you may have to go the "premium" route.  It's 16 years since my father died, but he lived in France at the time.  I was with Citibank (now with First Direct, but that's another story) then.  I phoned them, explained the situation, and that I was looking for a Euro account plus cheque book just in case I needed it to deal with funeral costs etc.  The account was set up over the phone and the cheque book arrived the following morning.  I had my issues with Citibank but credit where it's due, in those difficult circumstances they really came good for me.

As has been said, French banks are years behind the times and charge for everything, so my advice is don't do it unless you have to.
We have a French account (Credit Agricole) simply because the local authority where we have our property won't accept property type taxes from an English bank (or wouldn't do when we last checked) ... we top up the account via Transferwise only when bills need to be paid.
If you really want an account check the charges against what you are going to spend the cash on, the charges for different transactions do vary.

We wanted a 'cash card' from CA to use on a recent motorcycle tour and found out it was going to vastly more expensive than getting a specific UK card which we just loaded as we went.  This worked well even in small rural garages, not turned away once ..... which is unlike trying to use a UK card and also much cheaper.

Thanks so far for the thoughts everyone, and please feel free to add more anybody else.  Nothing said so far puts me off because the Italian banking system is no more up to date than the French.  I have a useful agreement with my lovely bank manager that she will transact for me on the basis of an email instruction, but at some point she still needs me to present myself at the branch, which is pretty much in the centre of Italy, to sign in multiples for everything.  Hence why it's going to become more difficult to maintain it over there as I have less and less reason to visit the area.

I already have a Nationwide account and credit card that I've always used for 'foreign' stuff, so familiar with all that.  I have been mulling this for a while and just haven't landed on my final decision.  Most of it was originally converted from Sterling to Lira to purchase a house many years ago which was later sold; the idea of paying to convert it back to Sterling doesn't really appeal when I regularly would need then to convert back to Euros for travel.  I might give some more thought to opening a Euro account in a 'UK' bank - I considered it a few years ago and dismissed it, but it's a possibility.  I have an aversion to paying for bank accounts - the Italian one I have at the moment charges expensively but only for certain types of transaction that I mostly don't do.  On the whole I use a debit card (which I do have to pay for) when in Italy and otherwise just withdraw cash around Europe.  If I found a similar one in France I'd be happy with that.

I also do have a need to invest the larger portion of it in such a way as I can quickly sell the investment and get the money when I want another holiday ( ), as it's too much money to leave sitting around earning nothing, but I'm guessing I'll have some better European p2p options coming along in the not too distant future, so not too worried about that at the moment!  In the meantime it can go into some bonds as it currently is in Italy.

I will of course get advice from my friends.  My only hesitation there is that I know they are with Credit Agricole and that is definitely one of the weaker members of the French banking system - I'd be keen to go for something more robust in the current climate.

ramblin rose I use Revolut as I go to Ireland a lot and that is free to withdraw cash up to 500 euros each month (they charge a percentage for anything above that) you can transfer any currency onto the card and exchange it using the mobile phone app whenever you need to at a rate not much different to the actual exchange rate unlike with others who take a larger cut.

It is basically a prepay credit card that can use different currencies but I think it is very good and sounds like it would suit you needs