France for their willingness to demonstrate

One red flag is when your landlord lives in the same building or on the same property. That is never a good sign.

I once rented a room where the landlord lived in the house next to the appartement. He (and especially his wife) was very nosy; during summer they did lawn work and tried to eavesdrop at any opportunity (although I always was offered fresh home-grown vegetables, so at least I saved money on that). The landlord had the switch for our heating inside his own house. During winter I and the other roommates had to go over to him and demand that the switches the heating on again.