: What country to buy an ISBN when your language is different to the country you live in? I live in France, so to obtain physical copies of my book (which is in English) for selling in book shops or giving away it is too expensive

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An ISBN is not mandatory, but chain bookstores and many independent booksellers require a barcode. In reality they want an EAN-13 representation of an ISBN-13 barcode. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number
Where you print your book does not matter for the ISBN. Many books are printed in China then shipped all over the world with the publisher's ISBN.

ISBN's are issued by country within the Group section. Decide if you want an ISBN block as a publisher or a one-off as an author-publisher. Do you want to publish other books?

It is normally logistically and administratively easier to get an ISBN from your country of residence. Check the rules at home. The publication language is not tied to the country issuing the ISBN.

But many countries will not issue an ISBN without an in-country mailing address (snail-mail). You can get a forwarding service to accept and forward your mail but they normally cost money and hassle.

Stick to home unless France is become uncompetitively expensive or bureaucratic to issue an ISBN.

For Author promotional copies, it may be cheaper to print-on-demand in the UK, Ireland or France.

For bookshop stock, consider how big is the demand, how many copies you can personally promote and/or sell and if you want to be in the book distribution business. If not pitch small publishers/distributers in the UK/Ireland and France to see if they'll pick up local rights to your book. Make sure you're contract let's you buy copies at a price matching the biggest discount they offer booksellers and book clubs.