Haha yea, we call it mainland Europe as we're an island but we don't call ourselves islanders... weird country we are haha :)
Yea I have experienced small towns in France where you really do have to know the local language otherwise you are stuffed really!
You're spot on with that and when I went to France with an English person a long time ago, I was ashamed with what he was saying "I don't want to learn another language, everyone else should speak English" - it might be a general feeling but I appreciate that everyone has learned to speak the english language and I want to at least try and learn a few words.
Haha, I hope you have a checklist of things there to ask if those topics ever need to be asked :)