Wow, impressed with your wife learning Dutch as an adult - and now getting to grip with French... Hope the relocation gives you all you are hoping for.

You are right about the difficulties of not knowing the langue - I bought a flat in Bulgaria and it became a nightmare as there were smiling sharks all around - the Israeli development company corrupted all the local people including lawyers, such that most of the foreign buyers were cheated out of ownership for flats they'd paid fully for. I mangled to avoid that, but only after a long struggle.