Mrs B has now returned from her Loire Valley exploration and all is returning to normal. Apparently I was supposed to have prepared a slap-up dinner for her return, not hunt in the bottom of the freezer for old fish fingers, but apart from that momentary lapse all is well. Her most exciting discovery was [...]
Every year the gite business brings new challenges, and staying ahead of the game is not always easy. This becomes especially apparent in a year like this one where some potential holidaymakers are having financial difficulties and the overall level of holidays being booked is down. I don’t know if there is over-supply of gites, [...]
Each year during March and April I have to tear myself away from the pleasures of the internet and check that our gites are ready for the coming season. This year we are having a couple of rooves replaced, in addition to the sundry painting and decorating jobs I need to do each year, so [...]
Before I tell you where to find free gite advertising I’ll mention some of the problems that gite owners face when trying to get customers in their properties, and holiday rental listing sites in general. One of the big challenges of owning gites and rental properties is knowing where to advertise a property. A lot [...]
Our holiday season in the gites finished last Saturday, so this should have been a quiet, restful week. It turned out a bit differently, hence no blog entries since almost a week ago. To celebrate the end of the season, Mrs B likes to throw a big party, so we had that on Saturday night. [...]
When I’m out and about I see a lot of other people’s gite and holiday rental properties, and I’m always curious to take a look. Some owners seem to have almost no bookings, even in the summer, and others have no difficulty at all attracting lots of custom. Curiously it isn’t always the least attractive [...]
We can’t claim to be rushed off our feet most of the time – if truth be told running gites in Lot et Garonne is probably about as close to an easy life as you can get. But there are a few days each year when panic sets in, and we spend the day rushing [...]
In a comment on this blog yesterday somebody mentioned that they didn’t book gites where the owner lived on site, because of a bad experience where the owner had been forever hanging around in their garden, snipping hedges and cutting grass, while they were trying to relax. To say the least, I can see this [...]
Well after a couple of terrible weeks for weather things seem to be on the mend and today it’s a lovely sunny day. Not as hot as a June day should be, perhaps, but after two weeks of rain, clouds, wind and storms it’s good enough. I did feel sorry for the people who stayed [...]
Here’s an idea you might like – francethisway can put cash in your pocket! Loads of you will be visiting France during the coming months. Our goal is to have complete coverage of all the places of interest in France, and to become the leading resource for people visiting the country. A challenge that is [...]
The heading ‘a new life in France’ hardly applies to us because we are positively veterans of the process compared to the many more recent immigrants. But as the gite season is upon us we need to prepare ourselves for the questions that we get asked each year by a large number of the people [...]
Booking a gite or villa holiday in France (or anywhere else) can be a bit of a hit-or-miss affair, so I thought I’d offer a few practical suggestions on making sure you book the perfect holiday for yourself in the future. Sorry I forgot to write this sooner as promised. And I often use the [...]
Every year a lot of people stay in gites (holiday rental self-catering properties, for those who don’t know) in France. That’s good news for me of course because I’ve got two, and if they were empty all year I would be even poorer. Unfortunately most people prefer to pay more and come in August, rather [...]