Mme Durand habite à la campagne (Mrs Durand lives in the countryside)

Question

Why is "à la" used and not "dans"?She lives, physically, in the countryside.It seems if she came "from the countryside" it would be "à la".Is this just one of those "this is the way it is, and not subject to the dans/en rules"?

Accepted Answer

Hi Herb,
You would use à la in French to say in the countryside, at the seaside, in the mountains, at the post office, all feminine nouns in French 
Elle est à la campagne, à la mer, à la montagne,  à la poste
For masculine nouns you will use 'au' or à l' -

elle est à l'hôtel = she is at the hotel 
elle est au bureau = she is at the office

If you wanted to say -
she is/comes from the countryside 
you would say 
elle est/vient de la campagne 
Hope this helps!

Answer

Hi Herb,I see this as "habiter" in the sense "avoir domicile" used as an intransitive plus preposition.Therefore we have "habiter à".There is further information here:-https://www.wordreference.com/fren/habiterHope this helps.Jim