This is my view in fact. I used to feel that I’d move to France, where I can speak the language, but I’ve changed my mind. I’ve learned that, as you say, weather is not as big a deal for me as it was in the past. Anyway, I can’t do it easily because of Brexit.
I have tried to do what you suggest and use holiday rentals for long vacations, but it’s easier said than done because it’s real hard, or has been for me, to find places which I enjoy staying in. They are all a bit soulless, so that I never want to go back to any of them. There was one place, I used it for long stays in Marseille in fact for years, but then the owner decided to sell it.
@richardg - I too liked Menton and thought I’d live there, for me the attraction was the microclimate - I wanted to make a garden with pomegranates and clementines! However now I’m not so sure that, if I could live in France, I wouldn’t choose Marseille, city with a bad reputation obviously but so much character, and many attractive arrondissements, without the feeling of being a bit bourgeois, geriatric and small town like Menton.