I thought they were built in Italy, but may well be wrong? - Exchange rate does come in to it a bit and generally UK bikes tend to have lower mileages and be in better condition than those in France - but the XT seems to be one of the rare exceptions to this where you can get like for like at the same cost when you factor in bring the bike over from the UK, which even best case scenario usually costs �200. Maybe the XT's were priced more competitively from new in France.