Hi Maximus Brutus,

It looks like you are have made the same decision as my wife and I.

We feel the same about the UK.

i did a fair amount of research about where in CH we would like to live.

My first choice was Geneve as I do have like you a very rusty level of French. Also from a business perspective it made more sense.
My second choice was Ticino, Lugano, Locarno.

I took a week looking around Locarno, Montreux, Lusanne and Geneve.
a week is not very long when making a decision of where to live etc but i believe you can get a good feeling from somewhere faily quickly. i am sure you know what I mean.

I must say that everywhere was beautiful.

In the end I made the decision that Locarno was the place for us.
I have found an ideal House with fantastic views and I know we will feel very comfortable there.

From a logistics point of view, its only a 1 hour drive to Milano, 1hr 20min to the airport. I its think 2.5hrs to Zurich and 2.5 to 4hrs to Geneve.
I have also been told the train service there is good.

If everything works out for us, we will have bought our property by Xmas and make our permanent move in the next 12 months.

We are keeping a home in the UK too.

I'm not so concerned about isolation etc, it would be nice to meet expats and make new friends. Like you we like to spend time with our friends but its not a matter of life and death. As it is my wifes best friends are spread around the rest of Europe and from Ch we will actually be closer to them.

It seems we have the same ideas and I noticed that you and I are nearly the same age as are our wives.

Good luck with you plans, it would be great to hear how you get on.

I have been reading this forum for a week or so and found that there are a lot helpful people and much useful information and answers to our questions.

Best wishes

Stuart.