What is HEC Paris really like?

Hi - I'm looking for some advice re my MBA applications - any info would be much appreciated!

I applied this June to 3 business schools: Warwick, HEC Paris & INSEAD. I'm from the UK (London) & selected these schools as I didn't want to do a 2 year course (which ruled out most of the US courses) and also would like to develop my French - hence the French schools over IMD or IE for example. I applied to Warwick as a solid school in the UK, and also thought that the 3 schools gave me a spread in terms of difficulty to get into

I sat the GMAT in June (in a bit of a rush) & got 680, although my verbal was much higher than quant (92v, 56q, 6aw)! I subsequently had interviews with Warwick & HEC and was offered places to start next Sept. INSEAD said they liked my application but encouraged me to reapply with a higher GMAT score (70-75% in each)

I re-sat the GMAT this week and got 690 (88v, 68q). I suppose I could have done more prep but had been doing the Kaplan CATs and consistently scoring in the 80s in 90s in quantitative - I now realise those don't correlate fully with the actual GMAT and probably gave me a false sense of my level in numeric! Overall I must say I think the GMAT is a waste of valuable time as you don't really learn anything from it that is business relevant - it could be replaced with something where you actually learn relevant things as you do it - but realise it is part of the game. I'm currently planning to re-sit it one last time in late Jan and will do a fair bit of quantitative study in advance!

I'm certainly close to the level needed for INSEAD and I think if I can improve the score in Jan I'll get an interview. If not I'm left to choose between the 2 other schools, which is what my real question is about!

Warwick is in my own country & is a solid school although there are several higher ranked schools in Europe. The thought of living in / near Paris does really appeal however and also I'd really like to develop my French. Also HEC scores pretty highly in the rankings and the range of modules looks wider than Warwick. What concerns me however is that here and there I have heard negative reports about the school, a couple of people saying that some of the lecturers are not good and that they didn't think it was worth the money - it's expensive at around £50k! One guy I heard actually left the course without completing it. I went to an open day there also and the guy who showed me round also said that the teaching isn't the best and didn't seem hugely energised

So my dilemma is is it actually worth going to one of the other schools if I don't get into INSEAD? What I really want is the knowledge that I'll gain and in the HEC case the experience of living in France, but at the same time £50k is a lot of money and at the moment the bad vibes that I'm picking up here and there are making me doubt whether it's worth it

Any comments would be welcome!

Thanks

James