Which is culturally closer to France itself: French-speaking Belgium or Switzerland? (country, German)

[The Postman]

I know there are cultural variations within France, but which seems more like France itself, the French speaking part of Belgium or Switzerland?

[chessplayer]

French speaking part of Belgium (Wallonie), definitely. And as Belgium is about to collapse, they may join France in the future.
French speaking part of Switzerland is 100 % Swiss (actually, they disdain France : it's a messy country according to their opinion). And if you really want to upset a Swiss, ask him if it would be a good idea for them to join European union (but don't ask him to join France, the joke would go too far : it could be seen as an insult)

[pigeonhole]

I voted for Belgium . Quite obvious for me anyway since I live only 200 miles from the border. Jacques Brel, the greatest Belgian singer, was French too. But now the film maker Godard is Swiss. But I feel we have much more commonalities with the 5 million French speaking Belgians than with the 3 million French speaking Swiss.

[french user]

That's not an easy one, but I tend to say Wallonia. Contrary to what its more northern geographical position would imply, Wallonia seems actually has a more "latin" messy attitude than Switzerland, which makes it more similar to France. Switzerland, even in the french-speaking parts is very organised, disciplined, clean and rigid, which makes it feeling much like norther Europe, this might be due to the influence of protestatism; while the catholic Wallonia is bit messy, socialst, rebelous, etc. Like France is.

But on other points than "mentality", this might be not the case. For exemple French swiss are, like France, a country of wine culture, while Wallonia is oriented towards beer, like Netherlands, Germany, England, etc. On other aspects such as architecture, etc. French-speaking would have much in common with neighboring french region of Franche-Comté, Jura or with Savoy for the similarity of the Alpine part (and sharing similar white wines and dishes such as fondue savoyarde, etc.)

When concerning the ambiance (architecture, foods, ect), wallonia is actually more similar to north-western Europe. Only the northernmost part of France have similar feel (npdc region, Picardy). In that sens, on the exterior, french swiss feel more like central regions of France, but with a quite dinstinct swiss mentality.

[amaroW]

I know Belgium and Switzerland...French Swiss sounds like the French whereas many FRENCH Belgians have a particular accent like in a little part of France.
If you live in France close to the belgian border thus french speaking belgium seems to be closer to France, but if you live in Southern , central, western France, you will say French speaking Switzerland