Moving to Denver

Hey everyone,

My boyfriend and I currently live in Paris and are thinking of moving to Denver but we'd like to know a little more about the lifestyle here and cost of living. We're very outdoorsy people (my boyfriend wants to be close to the mountains) but I need to live in a rather big city to go shopping, see plays, concerts, have plenty of choice in restaurants...and we want to live in a sunny place which is why we crossed Seattle out of our list for example. Given this, do you think Denver would be a good fit for us? In terms of housing, what are the trendy neighborhoords these days?
We're really attached to our French/European culture lifestyle and still weighing the pros and cons so anything you think could be interesting to know about the Denver culture/lifestyle, feel free to tell !

Many thanks! :)