I liked what you wrote very much. Very funny ! I am French and I would have never expected French people settling with caravans in Sheffield. When I was at school, I used to have an English friend whose parents came to our village by caravan. They had be living for 3 years with their 3 daughters in the caravan, building themself a house. After this time their money may have run out because they travelled back to England without finishing the house. Well I would say, we all are a bit odd, arn't we ?
PS. I noticed that very few English cars have the Europeen flag on there immatriculation plate but in my opinion this is an exception in Europe. There are still some black immatriculation plates in France but I think these are old cars. I know Polish cars also have a black immatriculation plate, looking quite the same as the old French ones but they also are changing for the europeen standard.