Joseann
At least you had the advantage of speaking French, pascal30, if I assume correctly. It's ridiculous how many Brits go to live in France but can't be bothered to master the language.
It's not a question of can't be bothered, rather than a question of where we live.
Many Brits, including myself and DH live in the countryside. our nearest neighbours are 100 plus metres away. Out of the 7 houses around us, 3 of them are holiday homes. Two are occupied by elderly people and the other two by people out at work all day. In a rural area like ours the elderly often don't want to mix with incomers tend to socialise with their families.
If you live in a town or village you would have immediate neighbours whom you would probably see most days which make it easier to just pass the time of day. The English people that I know who are the best at speaking French live in the middle of our village or similar villages. All the French people that we do know are incomers.
If you move to a village in England the best way in which to get to know people is by having children in the local school and/or by going to church. When we lived in Suffolk we did neither of those things. We met people by my DH volunteering to build sets for the local am dram group after having been to their annual performance not long after we moved in.