General view of Lisbon's Saint George castle and its historical neighborhood extending down to the city's downtown. Lisbon's historical neighborhoods and houses have been a target for foreigners planning on moving to Portugal or to invest in real estate | Steven Governo The French do Lisbon Une place au soleil: Why the French are buying up Portugal.

LISBON — Amália Rodrigues, the late, great diva of Portuguese fado music, had one of her biggest hits with a number entitled “Lisbon, don't be French.”

“Lisbon, don't be French, it's clear you won't be happy,” it goes. “Don't date the French, Lisbon, my girl, ... some things just can't be forgiven.”

The song — originally from an operetta set in Napoleonic times — has been a fado standard for over 60 years. These days, however, Lisbon is no longer heeding its warning.

In the summer of 2015, the Portuguese capital has opened its arms to a friendly French invasion.

Parisians pack the street cars rattling around old city neighborhoods; bands of Burgundians and Bretons roam the medieval alleyways of Alfama; venerable cafés in chic Chiado echo with demands for “encore un verre de porto, s'il vous plait.”

The French are pouring into Portugal in part because previously preferred destinations are now viewed as too risky.

“We can't go to Tunisia, we can't go to Turkey, we can't go to Africa, so we're falling back on those countries where we feel safe,” says Béatrice Guimard, a visitor from Marseilles on a stroll through Lisbon's 18th-century downtown.

Over 200,000 French visitors came to the city during the first six months of 2015, an increase of 17 percent that has placed them above the Brits and Spaniards who have traditionally been the mainstays of Portuguese tourism.

And the French are coming to stay.

In the past two years, Portugal has emerged as destination of choice for French retirees seeking a permanent place in the sun.

French citizens bought or took out long-term rents on more than 7,000 homes here in 2014, a three-fold increase. Portuguese authorities estimate the number could hit 20,000 this year.

Such figures prompted an article from Le Monde last month that suggested Portugal is fast turning into a European Florida for greying Gallic snowbirds.

There are clear reasons for the influx.

Portugal is just a two-and-a-half-hour, low-cost flight away from a dozen French airports. Its cost of living is a third cheaper than France. There's a balmy climate, great beaches, relaxed lifestyle, excellent food and wine.

But it's terrorism and taxes that are really making the French turn to Portugal.

“North African countries which had previously attracted the French are perceived as too risky,” says Nadège Gaillard, CEO of MYSILVERWAY, a Paris-based company that advices French retirees on setting up their retreat in the sun.

“We started about a year-and-a-half ago with the idea of focusing on Portugal, Spain and Morocco, but in fact, Portugal represents about 90 percent of all the contacts we're getting,” she said in a telephone interview.

Portugal's added attraction is tax breaks for expat pensioners.

Attempting to revive a real estate market clobbered by the eurozone debt crisis, the Portuguese government in 2013 offered 10-year exemptions from income tax for foreign retirees who spend at least six months of the year here.

"Portugal offers a big fiscal carrot" — Patrick Mangin

Squeezed by high-taxes back home, the French have been the most enthusiastic takers.

“Portugal offers a big fiscal carrot,” says Patrick Mangin, 69, a retiree from Grenoble who escaped to Portugal's Algarve region in 2008. “Tax pressure is definitely a reason why more French want to move here.”

Mangin, who serves as Algarve delegate for the Union of French Expatriates, says about a third of those heading there are motivated by tax reasons. Others are lured by Portugal's laid back, low-crime reputation.

“This country is considerably cheaper than France. We live under sunshine, pensions go further, we pay less taxes, there's security,” he told POLITICO. “I'm getting lots of enquiries from French people living in Morocco, but also from some who have retired on the Côte d'Azur but want to sell up and move because they feel it's safer here.”

The French connection is boosting the Portuguese property market, where last year foreigners accounted for over a fifth of sales.

In 2014, the French were in third place behind the Brits and Chinese, who were taking advantage of another Portuguese anti-crisis measure: the “golden visa” scheme that offers European Union residency to foreigners who spend over €500,000 on property.

“So far this year, the French are breaking all the records. If they are not in first place yet, they must be very close,” says Luís Lima, president of Portuguese Real Estate Professionals and Brokers Association. “It's just amazing the way they are buying up places.”

Realtors and other businesses have been taken by surprise by the French surge.

After decades focused on English, they are racing to find French-speaking staff who can respond to the notoriously monoglot newcomers.

It's not easy. The number of students taking French in Portuguese public schools has fallen by over a third over the past decade, the news weekly Expresso reported Saturday. Three times more are taking English.

“I don't miss France at all, but the language is a barrier,” says retiree Daniel Kroll, who swapped Nantes for Lisbon last year.

“We're taking lessons so we can fully integrate with our Portuguese neighbors and we're already eating bacalhau,” he joked. Bacalhau — salt cod — is a much-cherished Portuguese delicacy often perceived as a challenge for foreign palates.

Most Portuguese who can speak French are in France.

In the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Portuguese moved there to escape poverty, dictatorship and colonial wars.

Today an estimated 1.2 million first- and second-generation Portuguese make up France's third largest immigrant group, just behind Algerians and Moroccans.

Paris is still the third-biggest Portuguese city, after Lisbon and Oporto.

Ironically, the French seniors began flowing into Portugal as a new wave of young, often highly qualified, Portuguese were leaving the country.

Uprooted by record unemployment, over 400,000 departed over the last four years. Britain, Germany and Switzerland have, however, replaced economically stagnant France as the top destinations.

In fact, France's economic woes are leading a growing number of younger French migrants to follow the retirees heading south.

“We're seeing quite a lot of young guys with projects, a new generation, who are looking towards Portugal because the economic situation in France is complicated,” explains Laurent Marionnet, CEO of the Portuguese-French Chamber of Commerce.

“There's a quality of life here” — Walter Blazevic, chef

“The fiscal burden here is lighter, salaries and social charges are lower,” he adds. “The Portuguese government has done an effective promotional job that's got a lot of people talking about Portugal in France right now.”

Last week, France's TF1 television network ran a report hailing Portugal as an “El Dorado” for young French entrepreneurs who it showed setting up restaurants, boutiques and even launderettes.

Those newcomers are finding it increasingly easy to feel at home.

Lisbon has a scattering of French-run boulangeries turning out baguettes and croissants; new gourmet stores can fix cravings for foie gras or camembert; a glossy French-language magazine entitled “Vivre le Portugal” mixes tips for the expanding community with ads for “a retirees' paradise” on sun-soaked Algarve beaches.

“There's a quality of life here. The French who arrive are astonished by the level of culture, the architecture, the history,” says Walter Blazevic, a chef from Alsace who serves magret de canard followed by crème brulée à la vanille at his upscale restaurant, Lisboète, close to the French embassy.

“I'll never leave,” insists Blazevic, who moved to Portugal in 1998. “There's only one thing I miss from France — that's my mother.”