So I am also starting to formulate a plan for the next chapter of my life. I have recently purchased a car and will be heading off through the Channel tunnel in a month or so bound for France and Spain.
I find the longer I spend away from the UK the harder it is to get back into life here. I am sure other long term travellers and expats know what I mean. It’s hard to describe but in essence I feel a bit of an outsider in my own country.
When I am overseas there seems to be a lot more people like me about and I find this comforting. I love catching up with friends at home and family is important but feeling part of a like minded community is important too. When I eventually settle down and perhaps have a family of my own I am sure things will seem different.
I have applied for the http://www.workingnomad.com/164/mind-your-language/" English Village teaching week again for later in the summer and I am also looking at langauge training myself, probably French, sometime before that.
France has many advantages for me with the major plus that home, familarity and family is only an hour or so away.