I met a woman the other day who has been living in the south of France for nearly 50 years. She was talking with two elderly ladies, friends of many years standing. The latter two ladies were speaking French with a smattering of words in patois (local dialect of Occitan). The Spanish lady was speaking Spanish with a few words of French in there, very few. And they understood each other perfectly and it was obvious that this was how they spoke all the time. Her in Spanish and they in French with no need to learn each other's language.

A bit like me and the Spanish then. ;-))

Spanglish! I remember the first time I went to Gib and listened to some of the locals having conversations, it was fluent Spanglish!

50 years in the south of France and doesn't speak French?? You'd think she would have learned more than a few words by now