I am German, my wife is French. For the family, we had to chose. We chose France.
Therefore, I have been faced with the problem personally, and had to make a very subjective choice.
We had been living happily in Munich for ~10 years. Munich is by many considered to be the most attractive city in Germany (I was born in Hamburg, and would still prefer Hamburg for its maritime flair and a more cosmopolitan attitude than Munich). At any rate, Munich is a very good place to live.
So what made us move in 2010?
My wife is from the border with Spain, on the Mediterranean side. She still had many friends and family there. And the place is simply spectacular: The sea with beaches to the north and rocky cliffs to the south, and at the same times mountains >3000m in the Pyrenees just on the other side. History back to the Greeks and Romans, more recent cultural influences from Spain and France. A very healthy environment with lots of space.
The only thing this place did not have was jobs for the kinds of academics we are. Fortunately, I had started my own company 4 years earlier, and being a modern, internet based business, physical location was less important. I still have my first residence in Germany, since the company and many clients remain there.
But for the family (we have 2 sons, 4 and 6 years old), we said we should decide for one "center of gravity". The older the kids get, the more difficult it is for them to change schools and friends all the time. It might not be apparent, but I know adults who became utterly incapable of establishing stable, long term relationships after living the life as child of a expatriate manager, diplomat etc.
In a more general way, I would say the advantages of France over Germany are:
Significantly better support for women who prefer to continue to work. While in Germany, for (catholic) religious reasons, working women are still sometimes frowned upon, and at least one political party (CSU) actively works to keep women home, in France (also catholic, by the way), it is a different story: At least since the Napoleonic wars, Germany and France had gone to war every 20 or 30 years. The French realized they were always at a numerical disadvantage, and tried early on to proactively change that with better daycare for children. Today, France is at the top of the birth rates in Europe, Germany is now lower middle, just inching back from a very low position through intensified support for young parents. But these things take time.
In France, school from age 3 was just officially made mandatory, but 98% of mainland French already sent their children to the "maternelle", the kind of governmental kindergarten with guaranteed places which precedes elementary school.
Since my wife plays a key role in my company, this was a big plus for us. In later years, the school system is more centralized than in Germany. In Germany, the federal states are in charge, and more recently they use this power to create a totally heterogeneous curriculum. Even the years to reach the "gaokao" equivalent are not the same anymore, depending on where you live. I don't think that's healthy.
When it comes to university, the ranking might be reversed. The French system is too much like a school with too much emphasis on reproduction rather than true insight. However, until then, much might change, and in any case, our kids grow up bilingually and have 2 passports. They will have the option where to study. More value for money in real estate. You have to (as French do) divide France into Paris and "province" (the rest), not to be confounded with the Provence (on region). Paris is obscenely expensive. But hardly any French wants to live there. It is viewed by most as an unavoidable career springboard. As a tourist, I could never understand, since it is so beautiful. But when I lived and worked there for a few months, I understood. It's great to go there for a weekend. But it is far less nice to live there. I distinctly remember of letting somebody enter the "périphérique" ring road ahead of me (I was nice), and the driver BEHIND me honked his horn in protest. That was one of the moments when I realized: I don't want to live in a pace where people use their elbows to such an extend. In my village, you say "bonjour" to everybody, even people you have never seen before. I prefer that.
We now live in a village where live is much more relaxed. The equivalent value of our Munich appartment (92 m2) bought us a nice house with view over mountains and even the Mediterranean sea on 10.000m2 of own land (in Germany and in France, you actually own not just the house, but also the land forever). This is made possible because France is significantly bigger than Germany, yet has 1/3 less people. It also has much more coastline and a bigger piece of the Alps plus the Pyrenees. At the same time as lowering real estate prices, this gives you great outdoors experiences, if you like that as I do. For me, in Munich, the best feature had been the big lakes and then the Alps around the corner. Today, I am on the sea with my own seagoing sail-boat (see image in my account), not renting some nutshell on a crowded lake. Especially where we are, the weather is a far cry from weather in Germany in general. Much warmer, a lot more sunshine, less rain, shorter winters, longer summers. If you asked almost any Frenchman, none of all these things would come up, at least not at first. The first argument would be "la bouffe", French colloquial term for the "food" or "kitchen". The French are extremely proud of their kitchen, and attach as much love and attention to it, as the Germans to their cars. I must be a "barbaric" as I was also happy at home, and am generally not "difficult" when it comes to eating. In fact most French here where we live are so convinced of the superiority of their origin that they never went to Germany, have no plans to ever go there, and see no point in why they should make such plans. It is only comforting to know that they regard with the same disdain anything "north", and for them, that starts right after Toulouse. Paris is already almost at the "arctic circle". Leave alone Lille, which seems hardly distinguishable from Scandinavian countries.
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