Grab a chair, kick off your shoes, chill and chat.
For many years, whilst working, I was always accompanied by a translator. I never made any effort to speak french - I was not lazy, I felt it was not my place to devalue or undermine the role of my companions (
).On retirement I took french lessons all the while regretting my earlier, lackadaisical ways. Now, my wife and I are not bad (she did french lessons for work) and have sufficient to cope with bureaucracy, health care and I particularly feel fluent at reading menus. Nonetheless, some things arrise which flaw us, eg how to explain problems with the car or aches (which I have never found a suitable french word for, always resorting to "douleur" which is not what I want to say). Also, the ever changing Tax Forms are a huge source of frustration - but let's not revisit that debate.
Our need to be competent in french is of our own making. On deciding to move to France, we deliberately choose a location with few British - that said, we had not realised how many dutch people live here, most of which are excellent english speakers. Our estate agent knew of the odd english person/couple in the villages around and asked if we would like an introduction but we declined. To date, we have no english acquaintances in France but do have french, belgian and dutch friends both locally and further afield in France.
So, I think how much you speak french is a matter of how much you need to, how capable you are at learning it and what opportunities you have/had to learn it. I feel uncomfortable on reading post that suggest a member only has french radio and TV and reads only french newspapers. Indeed, our french friends expect us to be up to date with all things UK and (possibly because of us) take an interest in the goings on there.