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Our
experiences since 1988
 We have
exchanged our homes around 40 times +. For short stays (long weekends), a few weeks or a month when we've crossed the Atlantic.
We have rented sometimes another member's home, or ours, when we lived in Paris and had a country home in Touraine. Now that we own only one house, in Provence, we may accept -occasionally- to rent one floor while we stay at home as the 2 floors are totally independent with distinct entrances (one in the courtyard, the other one in the garden). We can also welcome people if we organize a non simultaneous swap. The house organization is perfect for that. All of us have a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and separate toilets. The ground floor is bigger and have an extra bedroom Almost all our swaps were very nice. We've kept contacts with some foreign exchangers who became good friends over the years. We've done hospitality swaps too when we went to Québec. We've even experienced pets and house sitting : our home and animals have been looked after while we were away ! We refuse to put our pets in a kennel, our cats in catteries : they are too unhappy, unless you are really afraid to take our dog Tahoe in charge, in that case we shall find out a solution. Zoé & Zia, 2 female black cats have been adopted after Zig 's death (the black cat shown on the videa) The only thing we do NOT do anymore is exchanging cars. Due to a very bad experience in Canada... Rules and laws are different here and there, and in France any transgression may have very bad consequences on our driving licences. It's pretty hard once exchangers have gone back to their country to explain the police we were not the drivers when our car has been flashed overspeed or with the driver speaking on a mobile phone (which is forbiden)! We rather prefer families ready to look after our cats and feed them (if you don't want to keep our dog Tahoe) but the swap can be non simultaneous then all our pets will stay by us. Where did we go the last 36 years ? Austria (Wien), Belgium (Brussels), Canada (Victoria, Vancouver, Prince Edward island, Shelburne, Montreal, Mansonville), Denmark (Aarhus, Svendborg), Eire (Dublin, Galway), England (London -4 times- & New forest, Norwich), France ( Ile de Ré, Carpentras, Penm'arch, Nice), Greece (Skopelos, Andros), Holland (Amsterdam 3 times), Italy (Rome -twice- and Naples), Norway ( Tromsö), Scotland (Edinburgh), Spain (Barcelona, L'Escala and Las Negras -twice-, Seville & Mojacar), Sweden (Stockholm, Gotland, Kalmar), (Switzerland (Champex), USA (Los angeles, Corte Madera, Carmel, New York, Long island, Lake tahoe)
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