In France, one of the most common territorial divides separates the working-class suburbs of the large metropolises and their gentrified centers. This chapter, after defining and geographically characterizing periurbanization in France, examines the sociological and political changes in the countryside. It then turns to the case of medium-sized cities, many of which are now dominated by their periurban rings, before considering the opposite situation of large metropolises, where the periurbs are often seen as a place of relegation. In the face of these conditions, the chapter ends by examining the available policy options, following two main paths: the first is to supplement the right to the city with the right to the village; the second is to modulate or even revise the critique of urban sprawl to take better advantage of the intermingling of the rural and the urban brought by periurbanization.