un propre ville

You will mostly use this phrase when describing a place you are visiting or where you live. To use it correctly, keep propre after ville. If you want to emphasize how clean it is, you can add très (very) before propre. For example, C'est une ville très propre. If you are talking about your 'own' city, you must move the adjective: C'est ma propre ville. It is a small move that makes a massive difference in what you are actually saying to your French friends!

This is a perfect phrase for travel and tourism contexts. Imagine you are walking through a beautiful neighborhood in Bordeaux or a small village in Provence. You notice there is no litter on the ground and the streets are sparkling. That is the moment to turn to your companion and say, C'est une ville très propre ! You can also use it when comparing different places or when discussing urban ecology and environment with colleagues or friends over a coffee.

Do not use une ville propre if you are trying to say that a city belongs to you. If you say C'est ma ville propre, a French person will think you are bragging about how much you scrub the streets! Also, avoid using it to describe a city's 'moral' character or 'proper' behavior; for that, French uses different terms like convenable. Stick to hygiene and maintenance for this specific phrase. Also, remember the gender: never say un ville propre because ville is always feminine.

France takes its urban cleanliness and aesthetics very seriously. You might notice signs at the entrance of various towns that say 'Villes et Villages Fleuris' (Cities and Villages in Bloom). These towns are rated with one to four flowers based on their greenery and cleanliness. Being une ville propre is a point of immense civic pride for local mayors and residents. In many French cities, you will see small green 'motocrotte' vehicles or street cleaners in bright green uniforms working hard to keep the 'propreté' (cleanliness) at a high standard.

You can apply this 'before vs. after' rule to many other nouns. For instance, mes mains propres means 'my clean hands,' but mes propres mains means 'my own hands.' You might also hear une ville sale (a dirty city), which is the direct opposite. If you want to sound more casual, you might hear people say C'est nickel, which is a slang way of saying something is spotlessly clean, like the metal nickel.