Border crossing

When we were planning how to live in Geneva and concerned about the high cost of living in the canton, we did for a moment think of living in France and crossing the border every day to go to work. However, a few simple things put us off, in particular the possibility of living in the sticks in a country where we don't speak the language and aren't familiar with the culture. A universal concern for people moving to a foreign country I would expect.
On Sunday we visited some friends, Parisians, who live just over the border, in what appears to be a beautiful village, where the school is a five minute walk and the ski lift a five minute drive. They commute to Geneva on a daily basis, and handily the Genevoise don't have border controls with France, so the commute can be easily accomplished without the aid of a passport.
Their beautiful home is so carefully modernised it could have been built yesterday, though they assure me it was not. And the garden covers an area twice the size of our flat, giving outdoor freedom to their children that is not available to the high-rise dweller. All this located just minutes over the border makes a saving on the cost of living that happily makes up for the additional commuting time into the city. I tried to suggest that this saving may only be available to those who could speak reasonable French, and so would easily fit into village life. I was surprised to hear that on a rough estimate about a quarter of the village speak English as a first language, or fluently as a second.
With their children a bit older than ours perhaps our friends are less in need of the city's simple distractions on a daily basis. I guess it will be a few years before we contemplate a move to the sticks, a few more years and a few more French lessons.