We have travelled a fair bit, separately before we met and together. In the end we are both Europhiles.
We love the history, architecture and art. We love the fact that you can be in 4 different countries in 1 day, all with different languages, food, architecture, culture etc... and the diverse geography is compacted into such a small area. Take in North Africa and you can be in any of the world’s topical regions within a 2 week holiday.
Obviously this is us and everyone is different.
We also like the seasons and living in the UK, with all the social etc reasons already mentioned.
However, I do find England crowded, even though I live in a rural county. The other thing I have a mental block about is the ferry/tunnel. For some reason it feels like a much bigger hassle and expense than it really is. We have Dutch friends and sometimes meet them in the Ardennes for a weekend. Takes us 2 days to get there, they can work till lunchtime on a Friday and pull into the campsite at 5.30. Yes we could do it in 1 very long day but then you’re knackered for the weekend.

So all things considered it’ll be Northern France I think, possibly Brittany running a small holiday business to keep us busy - not as an income (to dodgy).

Ted, if you don’t like the cold you could head south. You’d be surprised how much warmer it is in the south east counties of England. We’re originally from Surrey but have lived in Manchester, Sheffield and now Lincoln. When our friends come up we forget about the temperature and eventually realise when they’re sitting on the sofa with a jumper and coat on - then we put the heating on. Also when we head south we really notice the nice weather.
Oh, and it’s not too late for Oz - 50 is the cut off point. But it’s not the UK with sunshine, it’s very different and not for everyone (50% return, I believe) so be careful.

Or you could just have kids and you wouldn’t have the time or energy to think about this......or anything else