I lived and worked in Bedford for a few years - such a lovely mix of people from many countries, I believe the biggest Italian community in the UK - Mainly because of the brickworks (now long gone sadly)
I am not sure about this.
Having worked in a French speaking environment for 25 years or so I would describe myself as perhaps three quarters of the way to bilingual but I am certainly not at an extraordinarily high educational level. There are many things that I have never learned, do not understand and do not know. It is just that the limited range of things I have expertise in, plus everyday matters, I can discuss in two languages.
It’s an empirical finding of many studies - a lot with children for obvious reasons, eg:
It’s also my experience with my kids I have to say - especially our youngest 2 who have been immersed in French schools and society for more of their lives. Although I would describe them as completely bilingual, I don’t think they have the depth of vocabulary in English I had at their age - although they have far more French than me (both when I was their age, and now!). We regularly come across English words they don’t know, although of course they are words that are fairly recondite; like… er… ‘recondite’!
Kids, maybe.
But I learned most of my French as an adult and I do not think my educational standard improved, but neither did I forget one English word for every French word I learned. If anything it expanded my English vocabulary because I took more interest in words as words.
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I think that depends to a great extent on how much and what they read.
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I lived in Brazil for just over four years and by the end I was giving presentations to senior management and writing reports. I took my car to the garage and I was completely out of my depth - didn’t have the vocabulary - except that I realised I could speak Portuguese because I knew enough to find other words to substitute. Mind you, put me in a garage in the UK and I probably wouldn’t have the vocabulary either! 
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We were at a car show up in Mayenne… I was chatting to a Brit and found myself searching for some English words as I’d learnt my car-vocab here in France…
so I’m saying “bougies” (and all sorts) … and pointing … and the Brit gave me an English lesson… 
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Here is my take on this , you can be bilangue and not know everything, for example , If I was buying a house from a constructeur I would know what the words meant because of my background but my wife ,who is french, would know all the words but not know what they mean in action, In english if I went into a solicitors office I wouldn’t understand what the words mean in action but would know the words, All that to say its not neseccary to know everything to be bilingual so go easy on yourself.
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Well that is how I see it, I do not think there is a close connection between the two. Bilingual to me means being able to communicate equally well in both languages. What you communicate, is a different issue and arguably that is related to your level of education and training and general knowledge.
So a small child who has only just started their education can be bilingual and can ask questions and communicate their thoughts and feelings in both languages, and as they learn and extend the content of their communication, their vocabulary in both langugages will expand in parallel.
Of course it can get out of synch, for instance there were work related issues that I had only ever dealt with in French and sometimes I could not find the jargon if I wanted to say the same thing in English, and also vice versa.
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not quite in keeping, but almost… could have been isolating-Brits…
French sisters have been discovered dead in their isolated home near Bearn… seems they’ve been dead since at least June maybe earlier… but as they were never seen, never out and about, lived self-sufficient/isolated lives… their absence was not noticed…
(I’m waiting on more details after the autopsies…)
How grim 
But also how peaceful, providing they went at the same time and without pain of course.
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Did they have pets?
Hopefully not. I’m now 61, and our last cat lived to be nearly 22 years old. We will not get anymore pets, not just for convenience sake, but when we pop our clogs someone else will have to look after the animal, and there could also be a long period when we might not be able to care for it properly.
Hoping for the best, but planning for things to not necessarily work out that way. I appreciate others have a strongly differing viewpoint on keeping animals into old age.
Unfortunately, unlike in the UK, we are not legally able to leave monies directly for the care of pets upon our passing. However, I suppose that the late, great Karl Lagerfeld may have found a way for his chinchilla cat ‘wife’ Choupette, by leaving property and finance to a trusted human.
Difficulty is, finding one of those
Our animal-loving neighbour has regularly taken on animals that their elderly neighbours can no longer care for…
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Caveats and conditions can be put on wills, Trusts set up etc to increase the chance that your wishes are carried out.
Especially when you have the sort of money that Lagerfeld had.
Thanking you for the last sentiment. My husband, who is the most competent and practical man in the universe and who has no fear of anything new, has impaired memory due to meningitis and a long coma. It destroys a large part of the brain. He is not able to remember lyrics to songs he plays every single day on the guitar, except for those he learnt pre meningitis. He has at best patchy recollection of the last house. And he built it with his own hands… He is unable to remember the names of the grandchildren. I am his memory, but as for learning French as in being able to converse competently, it’s a struggle. He tries very hard and gets frustrated at times, but the brain is damaged. I am privileged to have been reared in three languages, so french is not a problem, although I find the latinate grammar quite challenging at times.
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Not in France. Trusts are not an approved instrument.
Presumably there’s an equivalent that can be used to get oversight of a financial resource?
Anyway he was German.