I know a huge amount of people learn in Cessnas but personally I never liked high wing planes. I did the majority of my training in a HR200 and really enjoyed it. The only issue you might have is that it is a lot more sensitive than a C152/172 and so might suggest starting in one of those or a pa28.
If you have a school near you which has all three have each of your first few lessons in a different one and you will get an idea of which is for you. I expect you would find a robin or C152 are a similar price and then a pa28 or c172 would be a little higher.
After you have your license it is surprisingly easy to jump accross to france, however the costs for most things in aviation are high... especially if it involves the CAA! Plane hire has got a lot more expensive even in the few years I have been flying and is hard to keep up with but it is an amazing feeling when you get your license through the post.