I have lived in continental Europe without a break for 30 years now, and am still nearly a decade from retirement. I bought a place in Brittany with my parents where they retired and spent 18 years until the death of my Father 11 years ago. My Mum moved back to Somerset after that, we sold up the house, and Brittany is no longer home for me, although I miss it. The lively social scene that my parents enjoyed has mainly evaporated now, as so many of the ex-pat Brits have lost a spouse and moved back, and Brexit has made everything so much more difficult. I gather it's also a disaster for French businesses, which gained a lot of custom from British ex-pats.

Your friend sounds like a man I knew in Brittany who had been in the Hull CID. I gather he moved home after losing his wife. It seems to be much harder to hang on alone.

I can't see it, myself. I am in Switzerland and a fluent German speaker and tolerable French speaker. Plus my Sister is in the USA with her husband and kids. I think that if I were widowed, I would stay close to the borders of Switzerland, either in it or possibly in Italy or France. The UK is just not home any more.