Well the idea is that when you get older your birth language becomes dominant. Especially with dementia and other such diseases.
My mum has dementia. She used to speak French. She can’t no more.
I have seen many folk (not British) end up in an ephad. At best it is 4000 euros a month. Can the OP afford ?
The joys of moving abroad.
Keep the house.
I knew lots of brits up in Bretagne who were “one foot each side of the channel” types, always over there buying up the supermarkets and keeping B.Ferries afloat. Within a good 15years later, all but one couple had returned to live, they just were not willing to settle down in one place. We, on the other hand were totally committed, had kids in primary school, set up a business and employed people. Even when OH died suddenly, brits kept asking me when I was returning to the UK!! No way would I ever go back there after so long here, its an alien country to me now and the last visit was 6 years ago for dad’s funeral, the family over there preferred to come and visit us! To the OP, why not sell up in the UK now the prices are good and invest it in a second property near to you in France to rent out and bring in some monthly money. You could keep an eye on it and sell it if you wanted to at any given time obviously according to any rental conditions but another idea to consider.
It is not the direct health care, which is great here and you would have to unpeel me from it like a limpet. But it is the management of the healthcare. OH has a lot of dementia in his family and his daughter is in the UK without a word of French to her name. Likewise what close family I have is in the UK.
Barring car accidents, one day one of us will be alone. It may well be (and I hope it is) that whichever one it is will be able to manage perfectly well here. But if we need one of the family members to supervise our care then we will have to move back. But presumably if it has got to that point we won’t really be too bothered.
The other fear is of course loosing language skills, which can happen with normal senility. That is more of a concern.
(Having said that we have discussed the idea of a senior citizen commune with a few friends - a sort of do it yourself EHPAD.j
Jane, I was left alone upto last year for 7 years on my own and managed perfectly well, you get on and keep going and running away from all those memories we created was not on my agenda. Why would anyone want to return to a place they left many years previously when they are settled here, have enough to live on and have good friends and neighbours is beyond me!
I obviously didn’t explain fully - it would be because there was no choice. If I can’t manage my affairs myself, and need someone to oversee my care, my finances, my taxes, etc etc then I would have to return to the UK. I have seen too many horror stories of tutuelle going badly wrong.
I see, different to how I understood it. I am grateful to have family locally for such a scenario but realise a lot of people don’t.
We don’t but then we don’t in the UK either so, to be honest, it makes very little difference. If at all possible, we don’t want to go into a care home, French or English, but who knows what may happen. I’m not keen on planning for the worst scenario in that sort of way…
Whereas for me it helps and reassures me to know I’ve thought things through and that whatever happens I have an option. And also maybe to germinate my alternative OAP home idea.
I very much doubt whether I would be getting my new expensive asthma treatment in UK.
Jim’ colonoscopy was quick and a three month follow-up.
When I hear the health stories from friends in UK , there is no comparison to our hospital treatment here in France.
Having said that, there is a dire shortage of Gp’s here in Cluny and that is not out of the ordinary here in France,
54??? You’re nobbut a lad, with a pseudo like that I thought you were a kindred spirit. 
All I can tell you young fellermelad is that we, at 57, without a 2nd thought put our flat in Nottingham on the market in 1999 before we even got here, sold within 2 months we have never looked back despite quite serious health issues now on my wife’s part.
As long as you know how living in your chosen spot is all year round (we did because we came here in all seasons for holidays) I would say get rid in UK and don’t look back. We haven’t. 
By the way, ex-pats are those who intend going back, not a term accepted by most of us immigrants. 
I’m 50 and I have been in France since the age of 25.
One thing about the UK is that when you have been away for so long and missed out on so much…the country becomes new again.
The UK is a great fun country. I don’t like it when people speak it down.
More French live in the UK than Brits live in France.
It must have something going for it.
I think I phrased it badly, @JaneJones ! It doesn’t mean I haven’t thought things through - I have - and I know what my options are - it’s just that I don’t want to base my current life choices on what might, or might not, happen to me in the future. Life’s too short as it is!
Bearing in mind my definition of ex-pats above, do you think perhaps that many of those are temporary, and the majority living in London? Just a thought. 
Perhaps @JaneJones has put it better?
A big proportion of the French in UK were highly skilled workers in the financial sector. No longer.
That is another of your regurgitated incorrect facts. In 2016 it was about equal, but since Brexit the numbers of French in the Uk dropped dramatically and has continued to decline. A big proportion of the French in UK were highly skilled workers in the financial sector. No longer.
Look at things like Libé’s check fact or fullfact . org rather than online red-tops.
Absolute ollocks
You do realise my 3 kids are French (or half French) like many other thousands.
There only ambition is to go to the UK….or elsewhere. Like many other thousands.
We live in a multicultural world where people move about.
The vast majority of British who move to france is for retirement or life change.
It is not the same thing.
That is not the same thing as moving back, which was the point of the OP question
I think keeping a place in the UK is sensible, but not everyone will agree.
None of us knows what the future holds, and there may be a good reason - for you or a loved one - to return to the UK. If your OH dies, or you do, France may suddenly become a less rosy picture.
And keeping one foot in the UK camp may be a reassurance, at least in the early years, of an escape route which may actually help the settling into France process. Though if you decide to sell after having settled in, you’re selling a residence secondaire, with CGT liability!
You may not have the money to return to the UK, given the rate of UK house price inflation (UK House Price Index - Office for National Statistics). A doubling over 18 years isn’t terrible - average about 4% pa, by the back of my fag packet - but timing may be the problem if you’re investing in equities.
It’s a chew to manage a letting (though a reputable letting agency will take care of a lot of that) but you’re getting an income.
I don’t think there’s an obvious right answer! But reading your thoughts, and others’, is helpful.
Anecdotes are not empirical data. I could tell you that equally my son is Half French - Half British, he lives in the UK because that’s where he studied and found work but is desperate to leave and live in France.
I don’t know whether that’s true or not. What source of figures are you basing this on?
Regardless, if your typical Brit wasn’t monolingual then there would, perhaps, be more of them living in countries like France.
True….the point i am trying to make is that they are both very acceptable countries to live in.
Both are truly great. Take your pick. If your boat floats in France or your boat floats in the Uk then that is fine.
I just don’t like the negative comments about the UK. The UK great…it’s alive.
I love it.
In terms of the OP, for me it comes down to visa (i mentioned that earler), and planning for old age. There has to be a plan.
Enough with the UK is bad, NHS is crap and all that.