Table of Contents for this Episode
Category: France on a Budget
575 Home Exchange with Mali Anette Arnstad (Dec 7)
[00:00:16] Introduction and Greetings
Annie Sargent: This is Join Us in France, episode 575, cinq cent soixante-quinze.
Annie Sargent: Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent and Join Us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational journey through the beauty, culture, and flavors of France.
[00:00:31] Today on the podcast
Annie Sargent: Today, I bring you a conversation with Mali Arnstad about Home Exchange travel, a budget-friendly, authentic way to explore France and beyond.
Annie Sargent: With 14 years of experience, Mali shares how her family stays in local homes, cars and pets included sometimes, saves a lot of money, and lives more like a true local. If you’ve ever dreamed of swapping homes for a real French adventure, this episode is packed with tips, stories, and inspiration. And swapping homes is not the only way to do this, as you’ll see.
Annie Sargent: I must make it clear that this is not a sponsored episode in any way. This is just our opinion about a platform. They did not ask to be reviewed and they’re not paying for this.
Annie Sargent: But when I recorded this conversation with Mali, I always record far in advance because there’s a lot of demand to come on the podcast, I hadn’t yet signed up for Home Exchange, but now I have.
Annie Sargent: So I’ve listed my apartment in Spain, which I’ve loaned out a couple of times already, and I’ve traveled in France now, I stayed at four home exchange places. So I’ll tell you more about my experience in the magazine part of the podcast.
[00:01:45] Podcast supporters
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[00:02:52] Home Exchange with Mali Arnstad
Annie Sargent: Bonjour, Mali Arnstad, and welcome to Join Us in France.
Mali Arnstad: Thank you. Bonjour, Annie.
Annie Sargent: Wonderful to see you. So we are going to talk about something that has not, I mean, it’s come up on the podcast before, but we have not delved into it very much, and that is Home Exchange.
Mali Arnstad: Yes.
Annie Sargent: This is something you’ve done many times, 14 times, right?
Mali Arnstad: Yes, we’ve done it for 14 years, yeah.
Annie Sargent: Wow. Okay. So tell us about it. Tell me what got you started in this and how many times have you done this in France specifically?
Mali Arnstad: I think it just started because I heard about someone else doing it and we wanted to explore the option of Home Exchange.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: And actually we chose France as the first country to go in. I think it was just because we got someone, we got an offering there.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Mali Arnstad: In Brittany.
Annie Sargent: I see. And you are from Norway, right?
Mali Arnstad: Yes, yes from the very north. North of Norway.
Annie Sargent: Wonderful. Okay. You got a place, you signed up, because you have to pay a little bit, right?
Mali Arnstad: It’s about 150 euros a year to sign up to, typically a website for doing the home exchange.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Mali Arnstad: And then you just basically go on from there because you will connect with people that want to travel and want to exchange. And it’s very common in France actually, it’s very popular in France.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. I looked, just now before we started talking, I looked and it said that France had more than 10,000 possibilities.
Mali Arnstad: Yes.
Annie Sargent: So if you’re looking for a place in France, you’re likely to find somewhere, not necessarily city center Paris, but perhaps there are some there too.
Mali Arnstad: Absolutely.
[00:04:42] Experiences and Destinations
Mali Arnstad: Actually, we’ve exchanged to Paris as well. You have opportunities in the whole country, really. Yeah, so we’ve been to France, I think we’ve exchanged there about seven times. And then we’ve been to Italy, Spain, domestically in Norway as well and Belgium, and Sweden, and Denmark.
Annie Sargent: And Denmark, you’re in Denmark now. You just told me you’re in Denmark as we record this, which is also a beautiful country, so is Norway. I was in Norway, Denmark, a bit of Germany and a bit of Sweden too, this summer and wow, beautiful, especially Norway. Wow.
Annie Sargent: And I should say that this episode is not sponsored by Home Exchange. I’m not getting any benefits for doing this. I just wanted to have you on because you reached out to me and you said, “Hey, I love traveling this way.” And I agree with you. It’s a great way to see another country because, you know, there’s a whole hype about, oh, be like a local.
Mali Arnstad: Mm.
Annie Sargent: Well, that’s being like a local because you’re actually staying at somebody local’s house.
Mali Arnstad: Yes, exactly. And I think that is the beauty of Home Exchange, is the local experience. Because you will, I mean, you will live in, maybe in the middle of a village or somewhere that’s not necessarily a big city.
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm.
Mali Arnstad: So you will have to explore what the immediate surroundings have to offer.
Annie Sargent: Right.
[00:06:15] Logistics and Practicalities
Annie Sargent: And in your case, you’ve done exchanges where you let the people use your car as well, right?
Mali Arnstad: Yes. Because you have some, you have different types of exchange. You will have the simultaneously doing an exchange. Someone comes to my home and I go to the other person’s home. And that often includes car as well.
Annie Sargent: Okay. Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: So we do that, we try to do that always, because obviously it’s very cost-effective to exchange cars.
Annie Sargent: Exactly. I mean, you know, I’m not a car person, but we do this all the time with the dog sitters that we use and we let them use our car. We’ve never had a problem.
Mali Arnstad: No.
Annie Sargent: … They just, you know, they take care of it like it was their own and it’s not an issue. And even for the insurance, it doesn’t cost me any extra. I just call the insurance and I say, “Somebody else is going to use my car for two weeks. Is that okay?” And every time they say, “No problem. The car is insured, no problem.” So long as this person has a driver’s license and is over 26, there you go.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. Exactly.
Mali Arnstad: The other option for Home Exchange is with guest points, it’s called. That’s when you go to someone else’s place and they go to another place.
Annie Sargent: Right. So it’s a three-way thing.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. You kind of pay, well it’s not money, but you give them points and they are using these points to go somewhere else. And we do that quite a lot as well.
Mali Arnstad: We tend to prefer the simultaneous exchange because that is usually more interesting.
Annie Sargent: Uh-huh. Why? Why?
[00:07:53] Trust and Community
Mali Arnstad: Just because you get to know the family a bit more and you will have all the local recommendations from the family. The family will leave an extensive set of recommendations for restaurants, for playgrounds, for beaches, for cafés, for things happening in the area. So you stay in close contact obviously, and you stay in their home and they stay in your home. It’s kind of intimate.
Mali Arnstad: But it’s very nice. It’s always… People are, you know, as a general term,they’re always very nice.
Annie Sargent: Right. And so do you actually meet them most of the time? So do you show up in the morning and they’re home and …
Mali Arnstad: Well, sometimes we have met our exchangers. Usually you kind of pick up the car at the airport, really.
Annie Sargent: Oh, oh, so yeah, they left the car. So they drove themselves to the airport, they left the car there, and you have a second key or something.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, or we put it under the wheel, or……
Annie Sargent: Oh, right, oh, right.
Mali Arnstad: We’ve had, like, all these funny things where the … we found the keys for the car. Yeah, and you pick up the car and you drive to the home, and we take it from there. And sometimes they will have pets, and we take care of pets, and they take care of our cat. Of course they have to do that.
Annie Sargent: Like, what sort of pet? Do they even have … I mean, cats, I get it, but dogs too?
Mali Arnstad: Yes, twice, we’ve taken care of dogs in France. And we’ve even taken care of chickens. That’s the favorite.That’s an absolute favorite of ours. And guinea pig ones, birds, rabbits, turtle even. Yes, all sorts of animals.
Mali Arnstad: That’s great when you’re a family with kids it’s nice to do some pet sitting as well.
Annie Sargent: Right, it’s like you just settle into their lives.
Mali Arnstad: Yes.
Annie Sargent: Fascinating! And at the same time, they’re settling into yours. So when you do it directly like that, that is kind of cool, I think, because it’s a level of trust, and it probably forces you to keep your house reasonably clutter-free as well.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, it does. For me, it’s important to have a clean house. And I, of course, expect that from my exchange partner. But then again, you get to clean your cupboards once a year.
Annie Sargent: Yes.
Mali Arnstad: Otherwise, maybe you wouldn’t do it.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: You keep yourself kind of organized so that it’s not too difficult to put some stuff away and give them some room. They don’t expect you to empty the closets and all that, but just to make some room for them, right?
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, sure. We always keep one closet open for them to put their clothes in, but then again, if you have some valuables, you can, of course, put them somewhere safe, that you would do if you rented out your house on Airbnb, for instance.
Annie Sargent: Exactly, yeah.
Mali Arnstad: Which is the same thing. But the difference is that it’s the money exchange, of course.
Annie Sargent: Right, right. Yeah, and the website looks very much like Airbnb. Like, I was just looking, I browsed a bit today because I knew we were recording this, you know, it kind of looks like an Airbnb style of thing. You get to say where you want to go, and it’s going to say the number of guest points per night.
Mali Arnstad: Mm.
Annie Sargent: So some locations are obviously more “expensive,” than others.
Mali Arnstad: Yes.
Annie Sargent: So if you go to this fabulous big house somewhere, it’s going to cost you more in guest points…
Mali Arnstad: Yes.
Annie Sargent: … than a more simple apartment…
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, sure, sure. And if it’s by the beach or if it’s like, in a very sort of, popular area, it may be a little bit more for the guest points.
Mali Arnstad: But in general, it’s the size of the house that decide the number of guest points.
Annie Sargent: Right, and every time it says, you know, three bedrooms, four beds, it doesn’t typically say the number of bathrooms.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, I think you can… you can see…
Annie Sargent: Oh, you can see that as well. I guess if you drill in, if you click on any of the…
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, because you can filter. Good. We always looked for pools when the kids were smaller, and by the sea, basically.
Annie Sargent: Right, so you like a place where you can … yeah… So this one I’m looking at, it says it sleeps six, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and it’s 350 square meters. So that’s a big property.
Mali Arnstad: Yes.
Annie Sargent: So, you know, there’s all sorts, and there’s also studios, and there’s also…
Mali Arnstad: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: … you know, all sorts of things on there.
Annie Sargent: So, you know, I’m really tempted to do this with my apartment in Spain because it’s empty quite a bit of the year as a matter of fact. But of course, in the middle of the summer when people would want to go, it’s usually family members that go, you know? So …
Mali Arnstad: No, but there’s always a market. I mean, you have… for a small apartment, maybe it would be a couple or a retired couple that’s traveling.
Mali Arnstad: For instance, we currently have a Dutch couple in our home in Norway on guest points, and they are basically traveling around Europe with a van, staying in the different places for guest points, in different families and… They are doing a lot of hiking so I left a lot of hiking tips for them.
Annie Sargent: Right. I suppose as a homeowner you get to decide, “Am I okay with this exchange or not?” Right? Do you get to talk to them before you decide? Like, so you get a request?
Mali Arnstad: Mm-hmm.
Annie Sargent: You don’t immediately approve it. You get to maybe talk to them on WhatsApp or something?
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, sometimes we do that or we FaceTime them. But usually you get the feeling right away. And of course, it’s the location and the dates that matter, and the house, if it’s suitable for a family or not.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, and then we keep in touch on WhatsApp a lot, just for small things.
Annie Sargent: Do you get to review the people who came to stay at your place and they review you as well?
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, that’s the thing because it’s like Airbnb, you have a review system so you will put out a review after the exchange has been gone through. You’re done with it and you can give stars. But usually, I mean, it’s always, it’s always a good experience, I would say 99% of the times.
Annie Sargent: Right. You haven’t had a bad experience yourself yet?
Mali Arnstad: No. I mean, we’ve had like small things. We have done this for 14 years obviously so we’ve had like a couple of minor issues. Once with a car we entered into a little bit of an argument with a French couple over their car, but that’s really something, when you have done this this many times that may occur.
Mali Arnstad: But, I mean, it’s a trust… You have a trust contract with someone so we trust them, they trust us, and sometimes it can happen that that trust is breached, but very, very rarely.
Mali Arnstad: I mean, if you break a glass, if you break something, you replace it.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: We tend to break a glass, wine glass or two every summer and we just buy a new one or we leave some euros for them to get a new glass.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would assume people don’t leave out their valuable prize glass collection. Like, you wouldn’t do this … if you have things that are extraordinarily expensive in your home, which some people do, you would put them away in a locked closet or something.
Mali Arnstad: Yes. Yes. And if you’re that afraid of your things, maybe Home Exchange isn’t for you because…
Annie Sargent: That’s true.
Mali Arnstad: … I mean, you really have to want to do this, you really have to want to engage in this community and engage in this type of doing your holiday.
Annie Sargent: Right. Right. So where in France have you been with Home Exchange? Do you remember all of them?
Mali Arnstad: Oh, we’ve been… we’ve been traveling a little bit. We quite like to travel by bus or train in between the different places. We tend to stay maybe four weeks every summer.
Annie Sargent: Oh, wow. That’s a long time. Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: Because we have … Since we are doing this for free, I mean, it doesn’t cost anything to rent a house or rent a car, so obviously it’s for a family…
Annie Sargent: Yeah, that’s a huge expense that you don’t have to do, like, it’s unbelievable. Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. And being a family of five, we have three girls, we could never afford to do this holiday in France if it wasn’t for Home Exchange of course. So yeah, we’ve been to Brittany, that was the first year, and we’ve been to Paris, we’ve been to Bordeaux, Marseille, Montpellier, Arcachon.We’ve been to Béziers. Yeah, we’ve been … The coastal areas of…
Annie Sargent: Right. Right. Right. You go to the coast.
Mali Arnstad: We stick to the coast. Yes. Absolutely.
Annie Sargent: So the coast or a place with a swimming pool is what you mentioned. Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. Yeah, because we live basically on the North Pole so we need to warm up during summer and get to swim.
Annie Sargent: I have to say, it’s so strange. We were in Norway in June and the sun wouldn’t set until like 11:30 PM.
Mali Arnstad: Hmm.
Annie Sargent: And then it would rise again at like 3:45 AM.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. It’s crazy, isn’t it?
Annie Sargent: This is so bizarre for us, you know. We are used to kind of … this time of year the sun rises at 6:30 AM but it doesn’t set until 9:30-10:00 PM. So you have a lot of sun. But over there you have even more sun…
Mali Arnstad: Yes.
Annie Sargent: … which means that you’re going to have even almost no sun in the winter.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. No, we do. We have the polar night, so it’s basically dark for two months.
Annie Sargent: What is that like? Sorry it’s out of the context but I’m curious, what is that like just living in the dark for two months?
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. You kind of hibernate, I guess, but still there’s sunlight around noon so you would have to, you know, almost go for a walk at noon because then you get some daylight.
Annie Sargent: Yes.
Mali Arnstad: But in my experience, going to bed and getting up at the same time every daykind of gets you through it. You know, don’t fall for the temptation of sleeping all day, all afternoon, because you know, it affects your body system, of course, with being dark for two months with no sun. But then again, in the summer it’s 24 hours of sun where I live, so…
Annie Sargent: Yes, it’s amazing. It’s like, you think it’s 7:00 P.M, and it’s already 10:00 P.M. You’re like, “Oh.”
Mali Arnstad: Yes. And you can go out and you can start cleaning your house at 11:00 and it’s… …
Annie Sargent: Hmm. It’s unbelievable.
[00:19:00] Tips for Home Exchange
Annie Sargent: So what tips would you have for people who are considering maybe doing this? What should they think about? What’s something that you’ve learned over the years, I guess?
Mali Arnstad: Yes. Well, you start with just signing up to a website. There are several to join. And then start taking pictures of your home, as it looks like realistically. Maybe declutter it a little bit first so it looks nice, like you would on Airbnb.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, I think clutter is the enemy of this sort of exchange. If it’s really a cluttered house …
Mali Arnstad: Well, yeah. Well, a little bit, but still. I mean, you do exchange with a home, so it’s a home in all the ways that a home is.
Annie Sargent: Right, right, right.
Mali Arnstad: So sometimes you just, you know, you get that along, it doesn’t matter, really. Most of the time you’re out doing activities during the day anyway.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: And then, describe your home, and describe a little bit where you want to go, and what activities, what people that want to come to you can do in the area.
Annie Sargent: Uh-huh.
Mali Arnstad: Take pictures of the area that you live in. And then after that it’s just relax and sit back and start traveling.
Annie Sargent: Right. Right. The homeexchange.com website, I don’t know if they all do this, but they do give you some guest points the first year to get you started.
Mali Arnstad: Yes.
Annie Sargent: So that you probably get like, they were saying 500 guest points just awarded to you for starting. And so that, most places that will get you three, four nights. Places I’ve looked at, it will get you three, four nights. And it’s a good way to, you know, get started, see, you know, how you like it.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, exactly. Just start and,you know, just dare to do it, I would say. You get the hang of it after a few exchanges. It’s good to be flexible, I mean, it’s good if you’re a flexible person, and open. Yeah, open and flexible I would say, would be some traits.
Annie Sargent: So I hope this is not going to sound awful, but some of the people we’ve had in our home for Mind My House, so this is a pet sitting kind of situation, but it ends up being the same thing. They come to your home and they stay there and they take care of your pets and your garden for however many days. And a couple of the ones we’ve had were what I would call odd ducks. Their personality were a little bit quirky, but they were fine. I mean, they did what they were supposed to do, which was to take care of the dogs and to, you know, keep the house in reasonable shape. But their personalities were a bit quirky, because we usually spend a day with them. This is something that’s different, is we ask them to come a day early so that I can show them around, and probably just see their reaction with the dog and how they interact and stuff like that. And maybe I don’t have to do this, but I tend to like to do this. With a home exchange you wouldn’t do that.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. Or you would… maybe you… sometimes we’ve met them as well and my friend have met their home exchangers too because obviously all my friends do this as well. And I mean, we’ve become friends with this Spanish woman that we exchanged with. She came back to see us the year after actually, and we came back to see her in Spain as well.
Mali Arnstad: So, I mean, you get to know people even though you don’t often meet them either. The chances are that they are quite similar to yourself because you will… I mean, you would like the same things in a way, because you exchange with a family and they want to go to where you live, so obviously, you will kind of have the same interests. So the people wouldn’t be that different from yourselves,I would say.
Annie Sargent: Wow. Okay. So, you’ve met people from all different sorts of, all kinds of countries, mostly Europeans, I guess. Have you ever done this with US people?
Mali Arnstad: No, I haven’t. I haven’t done it in the US, but that’s just because it’s just been a too long travel for us. But we’ve had quite a few inquiries from the US, and my friend, she went to New York with her family for a week, on Home Exchange.
Annie Sargent: Wow.
Mali Arnstad: And we’ve had inquiries from different places in the US, and some of my friends, they’ve been to South Africa and to Australia as well. So really it’s big, you know, all over the world I would say.
Annie Sargent: Wow. Wow. And typically the people that you exchange with, do you get the feeling that they are of the same kind of social, economic kind of group?
Annie Sargent: Yes, sort of because they will, well, at least they will always have children because we’ve… Right.
Mali Arnstad: … So far, we’ve exchanged with people with kids.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Mali Arnstad: But I mean, yeah, I guess it’s kind of the same.
Mali Arnstad: Well, at least people who like to travel and explore, and being open and trustful and flexible…
Annie Sargent: Right.
Mali Arnstad: … I would say it’s more of the general trait than, more than the socioeconomical status, I would say. But…
Annie Sargent: Right. And probably it’s good if you prepare kind of some written down notes about your house and…
Mali Arnstad: Yes. I mean, it’s like you feed the cat like this, and here is the wifi. But I guess, I mean, the honey hole or the treasure in this system is the personal recommendations, because basically you get a tailored holiday, because the families will always leave a lot of recommendations what to do in the area.
Mali Arnstad: So you don’t have to use TripAdvisor or anything else. You just, you know, you do what they recommend, and that’s always, always top class.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Annie Sargent: I mean, obviously they will like to do the same things as you do. Right.
[00:25:08] The Joys of Home Exchange with Kids
Annie Sargent: They have kids your age probably and, I mean, if you’re offering a house with two kids’ bedrooms or three kids’ bedrooms, then maybe they’re coming with two or three kids.
Mali Arnstad: Yes, exactly. And I mean, our first exchange in Brittany, that was amazing because we hadn’t done this before. We were driving six hours from Charles de Gaulle. We came there late at night and they had like, a big room, room full of toys, a princess room full of toys. And that was, I mean, a dream for a parent because that meant, you know, you can have a glass of wine in the evening and your kids will have a room to play in. And you don’t get that if you rent, like a random place in France.
Annie Sargent: Right. Right.
Mali Arnstad: So you come to a home, and the best thing as well, is coming back to the home after a full day of activities. You just, you know, sit on the porch, open a bottle of wine, relax, and that’s what holiday is about, isn’t it?
Annie Sargent: Right. Right. No, it is. And also, you get access to the kitchen, you can cook your own things.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah.
[00:26:20] Welcoming Gifts and Local Delicacies
Mali Arnstad: And then you will always, I mean, we always leave a welcome gift for our exchangers and we always get that as well. It’s always a bottle of wine or it’s, like last year, we got a lemon pie waiting for us when we came to Arcachon.
Annie Sargent: Yes.
Mali Arnstad: And maybe we’ll leave some local beer or some local produce. You feel welcome when you arrive in a home.
Annie Sargent: So I assume you empty your fridge or mostly empty your fridge. I mean, you might have a bottle of ketchup and whatever. You’re not going to leave your leftovers or whatever you get a…
Annie Sargent: No. No. No. You kind of tidy your fridge, yes. Yeah. It makes sense. You leave it nice and clean so they can just settle in and enjoy the place.
[00:27:02] Building Friendships Through Home Exchange
Annie Sargent: Have you made friend… Oh, so you did make, you mentioned that you did make a friend with this Spanish lady. Anybody else that you’ve become friends with as a result?
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. Well, I mean, we keep in touch with people like, we’re in Denmark at the moment, and we were there last year and this family messaged me again and asked if we wanted to come back, which we did.
Mali Arnstad: So we were in the same house as we were in last year. We kept, have been keeping close contact with Natalie who has a house in Arcachon or La Teste-de-Buch which is a little bit outside of Arcachon.
Annie Sargent: Right, very close to Arcachon. Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: And she was just this lovely couple, retired couple, and they, I mean, they left us a lemon pie, and she had made tote bags for all the girls. We were chatting and she was sending pictures of all the birds that the cats dragged in, our cats dragged in. Yes. We kept closely contact with her, and I see myself coming back there actually.
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh, that’s fantastic. I really like that aspect of it that, you know, it’s human. It really feel, like it’s almost like you’re going to stay at a friend’s house while they’re on vacation. Almost, you know?
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. It is. And we send each other pictures and small things. You know, you just send a quick message on WhatsApp, you know, “Is there a flea market? Do you know if there’s a flea market around here?” And yeah, so you keep in close touch with people.
[00:28:32] Exploring Local Activities and Cultural Events
Mali Arnstad: And another thing I want to point out is that there’s always something interesting culturally happening in France, no matter where you are. So you will always find an activity within an hour of where you’re staying that’s interesting for the whole family.
Annie Sargent: Right, and they can let you know, “Oh, you know, next weekend, there’s this or that festival,” or, you know, yeah.
Mali Arnstad: Exactly. “And there’s a picnic. There’s a picnic and everyone is wearing white. Join the picnic.” I mean, we’ve been to lots of activities that we wouldn’t know of if it wasn’t for their local recommendations.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Mali Arnstad: Like one year, we went to this, that was in Languedoc, outside of Montpellier. Like, it was a picnic at night with a lighting show near a Roman bridge.
Annie Sargent: Wow.
Mali Arnstad: So that was so much fun, really late at night. But we wouldn’t have never known about that if it wasn’t for the Home Exchange.
Annie Sargent: Exactly, these people told you about it.
[00:29:30] Using Bicycles and Choosing Destinations
Annie Sargent: And I assume since you, sometimes get to use the people’s car, maybe you can also use their bicycles if they have any?
Mali Arnstad: Yes, absolutely. Most families do leave their bicycles, like we do.
Mali Arnstad: And last year, we had a wonderful cycling trip to Les Dunes du Pilat, for instance with the bikes.
Annie Sargent: Right, and there’s a very nice bike path to take you. Yeah, it’s … That’s a particularly good one, yeah.
Mali Arnstad: It is, it is. Absolutely, yeah.
Annie Sargent: Well, fantastic.
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[00:30:00] Choosing where to go next
Annie Sargent: So how, do you choose where to go next? Is it what’s available?
Annie Sargent: You know your vacation time and so you start poking around? Is that how you do it?
Mali Arnstad: Yes, we do that. And we usually tend to agree on where … Around Christmastime, we know where we’re going for the next summer because…but we kind of like … I mean, we do really like the Languedoc area and the Bordeaux, Atlantic Coast area, and Brittany. I mean, we’ve been to the Cote d’Azur but we’re not, like, big fans of the area. We quite like the Atlantic side, I guess.
Annie Sargent: Yes, yes. Cote d’Azur is … it’s entirely, it’s a different world, I’m telling you.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah, it’s a little bit intense.
Annie Sargent: Yes, it’s intense. It’s not as relaxing because there’s so many people. It’s so packed in. It doesn’t feel relaxing to me but…
Mali Arnstad: No, no. It’s very hot as well, and it’s very, it’s not much space on the beach.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the beach everybody’s packed in, so …
Mali Arnstad: And this year, we were like, “Oh, where do we want to go?” And then we were like, “Oh, maybe we’ll go back to Brittany,” because we did, we had a great time there 14 years ago. And then this family approached us from Paimpol, which is like a small village around Saint-Brieu area.
Annie Sargent: Right, so it’s like north and west of Brittany, of the Breton coast, yeah.
Mali Arnstad: Mm-hmm. Exactly. And after a little bit back and forth, we agreed with exchanging with them, so we’re going there on Monday, 4th of July, 14th of July actually, Bastille Day.
Annie Sargent: Bastille Day, yes, yes, yes. Very nice. And I assume you can ask questions about the … I mean, like, if you’re interested in a listing, you can start texting back and forth with the people or sending messages back and forth?
Mali Arnstad: And there’s always, of course, an advantage if they have done it before, because then it’s more kind of, they know the drill. But it’s not necessary. We’ve exchanged with people that’s never done it before as well.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
[00:32:10] Handling Logistics and Living Like a Local
Annie Sargent: How do you handle the key? Like, so you leave the key somewhere safe?
Mali Arnstad: Well, we have a key box, so that’s what we do. But sometimes you pick it up at the neighbor, the neighbors as well, or under the mat or… yeah. Yeah. Then you get to chat with the neighbors as well and get to know them, so that’s nice.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, and they’re definitely expecting you. Like, if I gave my key to one of my neighbors, I would let them know why I’m giving them the key. They would be totally expecting somebody new to show up, yeah.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. I mean, it’s like… it kind of, you exchange life a little bit as well. You know, you live someone else’s life somewhere else, or you kind of get to feel how it is to live in another country or to live somewhere else, because you kind of do the everyday things. You take out the trash every week, and chat to the neighbors. You fix the garden, or you deal with the pool. I mean, once we had a dead hedgehog in the pool and we had to deal with that. And you water the plants and…
Annie Sargent: That is why I always leave water out in my yard, so they don’t go drowning in people’s pools, because it happens a lot in Southern France, people have pools. You have this vast amount of water, and the animals are really thirsty and they try to drink out of it, and they drown in it. Even birds. Birds, most birds cannot drink out of a swimming pool, bathe in a swimming pool. They need a place to… they need a shallow place. Anyway, that’s the Southern France stuff.
Annie Sargent: So, I have like, places with shallow dishes of water that I empty, that I clean out. I don’t let mosquitoes multiply in there either.
Mali Arnstad: Mm-hmm.
Annie Sargent: But yeah, dead hedgehogs, oh, that’s sad.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: Sorry.
Mali Arnstad: No, yeah. It’s like the local experience, living like a local.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: … people dream about living like a local, and this is a very effective way, I would say, to live like a local.
Annie Sargent: To live like a local. Absolutely.
[00:34:16] Cleaning and Departure Etiquette
Annie Sargent: Do you clean before you leave? Is that part of the deal? Or do you hire someone to come?
Mali Arnstad: No, we just clean ourselves.
Annie Sargent: Okay. And sheets and stuff, do you try to replace the sheets or do you just put them in a hamper and then they will…
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. You just put them near the washing machine.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Right. And then?
Mali Arnstad: But we always try to lay the sheets for the people arriving, of course.
Annie Sargent: Right. Right. So, they get clean sheets because you’ve had time to do it, but when you’re leaving that day, you don’t have time to wait for the laundry to wash and dry. Exactly. Yeah.
Mali Arnstad: No. No. No. So you just agree on these things on beforehand.
Annie Sargent: Right. Right. Yeah. This is kind of nit-picky, but I’m curious how you handle these things.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: Like, do you have a cleaning… Is there a cleaning fee, is the question, really.
Mali Arnstad: No.
Annie Sargent: There’s not?
Mali Arnstad: Mm-mm.
Mali Arnstad: You just clean and then you leave, and of course, leave it like it was when you arrived.
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes. Yes. And as someone who’s… I’ve loaned my apartment to members of the family many, many times, and I know exactly which ones are clean freaks and which ones are not. I’m part of the ones who is not, so it’s okay.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: But if it’s my sister or my sister-in-law, oh, they just go cleaning places. I’m like, “Huh.”
Mali Arnstad: Oh, okay.
Annie Sargent: It’s nicer this way. It’s true.
Mali Arnstad: Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, that’s not very… That’s not a big stress moment, I would say.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. You just clean it like it was your house.
[00:35:42] Anecdotes and Local Experiences
Mali Arnstad: But yeah, I was just going to tell a little anecdote about the really living like a local experience, because we exchanged a couple of years ago in the Montpellier area or the Languedoc. It’s a little… It was a tiny village called Aumes. I mean, it was so tiny it didn’t even have a boulangerie, which is… You know, that’s sad.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Is it H-O-M?
Mali Arnstad: A-U-M-E-S.
Annie Sargent: Okay. Not the same one. Okay.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. And we stayed in a really nice house with pool, and the mother or the grandmother of the family she stayed next door, and she was actually picking us up at the airport and showing us the best oyster booths and really attending to us while we were there.
Annie Sargent: Nice.
Annie Sargent: And then my daughter had got a really serious ear infection, so we had to find a doctor, and she helped us find a doctor, and we went there. She got antibiotics and… And then the next day, we were walking the dog, because we were taking care of a dog, and you know, on the other side of the village, this woman calls me from a garden, and you know, calling me loudly, saying, “How is your daughter’s ear infection going?” And I was like, “What? Do I know you? No, I don’t.” Yes.
Mali Arnstad: So, we were part of the village gossip. That was spread all over the village the next day.
Annie Sargent: Oh, it’s not… It’s not nasty gossip. That’s…
Mali Arnstad: no. No. It’s just funny.
Annie Sargent: It’s like, “Oh, the poor kid got an ear infection on her vacation.” That’s not fun.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. Yeah. That was fun. Mm-hmm.
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes. Oh, that’s fantastic.
[00:37:18] Final Thoughts and Encouragement
Annie Sargent: Well, you know, again, I want to state, if we sound like we’re an advertisement, we’re not. This is not an ad. This is just reality, because I’m thinking of several people I’ve had on the podcast who were interested in really, you know, being like a local. I assume… oh, this is a question I should have asked you sooner. How many days do you typically stay in one place?
Mali Arnstad: Well, I… We tend to stay for two weeks, I guess, with the kids. But really, sometimes, I mean, if you go to Paris, maybe three days. But typically, people will allow for guest points exchanged for minimum seven days, maybe.
Annie Sargent: Okay. Okay. So when you list your place, you can say the minimum amount of days that you will… Okay. Okay.
Annie Sargent: Well, that makes sense. Yeah, because that’s another thing. Some of the people I talk to, they don’t stay that long.
Mali Arnstad: No. No.
Annie Sargent: They will just stay, you know, two, three nights and move on.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. Exactly, so… but you can find… Absolutely, you can find home exchanges for two or three nights.
Annie Sargent: Right. They will limit your choices.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Mali Arnstad: But I would recommend to stay… you know, to stay a little bit longer as a staycation, explore the local area.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s ideal for people who stay, you know, five days, a week maybe, you know, because I think if you stay less than five days, you really have the most fleeting of impressions of the area.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: You know? I mean, unless it’s a teeny tiny village where there’s really nothing much. But even a teeny tiny village, there might be a glorious hike you could take or great bike ride or, you know …
Mali Arnstad: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They will always have a gathering of some sort at some point while you’re there.
Annie Sargent: Yes. Fantastic.
Annie Sargent: All right, Mali, you have been wonderful to talk to. Thank you so very much.
Mali Arnstad: Thank you so much.
Annie Sargent: And I’m going to sign up. I’m going to do it with my apartment in Villanova because… And who knows, I might do it for my house for my main residence as well because… and I assume you can list more than one place?
Mali Arnstad: Yes, absolutely. You can have your second home. And a lot of French, you know, offer their second home as well.
Annie Sargent: Well, yeah, because, I mean, truly, we have a lot of people who have a secondary residence in a place where they only go a few weeks out of the year. And they would probably list it with fairly low guest points…
Mali Arnstad: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: … the rest of the year. And I assume the number of guest points, is it steady all year or do you have to, can you adjust it?
Mali Arnstad: No, no, it’s steady. It’s steady all year actually.
Annie Sargent: Okay.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. And actually, I’m going with my daughter that’s 14, this autumn to Paris, because she’s learning French, and she really wanted to go there with her friend and her mother. So we’re all going there for only three days actually. But then I managed to get a Home Exchange place for guest points in Marais in Paris. A big apartment.
Annie Sargent: Nice.
Mali Arnstad: So, I mean, that’s just like, it’s a golden treasure because you wouldn’t never ever, you know, we could never afford to go there to Paris to that area for three days, without this system. So it’s really, it’s a big secret that more people should know about.
Annie Sargent: Yes. And the website HomeExchange just makes money on the fee that, the yearly fee that you pay. They don’t get a cut, right? They don’t …
Mali Arnstad: No, I don’t think so.
Annie Sargent: You just pay them a fee to be a member of the website.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. It’s a little bit like a voluntarily member community because I think you can chat with members of the community. They’re not working in the administration. It’s just other members that signed up for being a volunteer.
Annie Sargent: Is that right?
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. Yeah. And then you can chat with them and ask and … Hmm.
Annie Sargent: Huh. So it’s not like a big company, a big for-profit company. It’s …
Mali Arnstad: No, I don’t think so.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. I mean, there are probably some full time people working there because just to keep a website like that operating, you would have to have some paid staff, I’m sure.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. Yeah, maybe.
Annie Sargent: But not, but not a ton. Yeah. It’s not Airbnb size, which…
Mali Arnstad: No.
Annie Sargent: … have hundreds or probably thousands of employees and are working very hard to rank super well on Google Search and all of that.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. No.
Annie Sargent: If you go looking for them, you’ll find them. If you don’t, you don’t. Kind of like my podcast.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. Exactly.
Annie Sargent: If you go looking for it, you’ll find it.
Mali Arnstad: Yeah. If you know, you know.
Annie Sargent: Exactly. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Mali, and have a wonderful vacation, and…
Mali Arnstad: Thank you, Annie.
Annie Sargent: … keep in touch. I will probably email you. Once I’ve done my first home exchange, I will email you and let you know how it went.
Mali Arnstad: Yes. Yeah. And you can, you know, you can find me on WhatsApp as well, and yeah, just ask me anything.
Annie Sargent: Thank you very much, Mali, and talk to you one of these days.
Mali Arnstad: See you!
Annie Sargent: Au revoir.
Mali Arnstad: Au revoir.
[00:42:29] Thank you Patrons
Annie Sargent: Again, I want to thank my patrons for giving back and supporting the show. Patrons get several exclusive rewards for doing that, you can see them at patreon.com/joinus.
Annie Sargent: And a special shout out this week to my new Join Us in French champions, Brooke Koss, Jenny Ducoin, Nancy Hackney, and Alex Mojica. And thank you, April Ebati Adams for editing your pledge up. Would you join them too? You can do it for as little as $3 a month, but if you can afford it, I would love to have you pledge more so you can access more of the rewards.
Annie Sargent: And to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/elysart. This is where I tell you what rewards I’ve published this week, but I was traveling the last 12 days. And I had very long days, every day, 14-hour day kind of things, so by the time I got back to the apartment at night, all I wanted to do was just have something warm to drink and hit the sack.
Annie Sargent: So I’ve been unusually quiet on Patreon, but I’m back and I will get chatty very soon.
[00:43:37] VoiceMap Tour Review
Annie Sargent: Somebody who’s clearly a podcast listener left this review of one of my VoiceMap tours, ” I enjoyed a relaxed, informative, fun tour of the Marais on a beautiful Saturday in October. This was my very first VoiceMap tour and I’ll definitely be back, especially for any of Annie’s tours.
Annie Sargent: I simply put in one earbud, put my phone in my pocket, and off I went. I paused the tour twice, once so I could go into the Carnavalet Museum, and then again for the National Archives. I love that I could do this, simply pick back up where I left off. I also really appreciate that Annie’s brought me to places that I would likely have missed otherwise, for instance, I had no intention of seeking out the National Archives, but there I was, so I went in and that was great.
Annie Sargent: They were running a special Victor Hugo exhibit, and I had just seen his house on Annie’s tour, and I also saw the table that the wounded Robespierre lay on while awaiting his execution. I had specifically gone into the Carnavalet to see the French Revolution exhibit, so the fact that I then stumbled onto this table at the National Archives was one of those full circle travel moments that I love.
Annie Sargent: Annie’s directions throughout the tour were very clear, I got turned around one time after popping into a church along the route, but I quickly realized my mistake, looked at the map on my phone, this was the only time I needed to look, and got back on the route. The information was fun and informative.
Annie Sargent: Thank you, Annie, for the wonderful tour. I’ll be back.”
Annie Sargent: Well, thank you so much for leaving such a detailed review, that was really great.
[00:45:17] Challenges with Maps and Tours
Annie Sargent: I visited several French cities for the first time, the last couple of weeks, some fairly big, some small, and how I wish I could have bought a VoiceMap tour for these places, or any GPS self-guided tour, as a matter of fact.
Annie Sargent: It doesn’t have to be VoiceMap, there are many brands that do this. None of these places had one. It would have made my life so easy.
Annie Sargent: So, when you can’t buy a VoiceMap tour or a GPS guided tour, you go to the tourist office and they give you a map. All right? What’s wrong with a map? Well, first of all, these maps don’t work.
Annie Sargent: Like, you have to, you look like a dork walking around with a map. I tried it. I still don’t like it. The map tears up very quickly, you can’t read what it says, like point number 12, where, what was the explanation on point number 12? It’s just, you don’t know if you’re supposed to go left or right next, you know, you don’t know where anything is.
Annie Sargent: It’s a new place, like what, how would you know?
Annie Sargent: So the GPS really takes care of all this stuff. So next best thing is, of course you could get a tour, you know, an organized tour by the city center, by the tourist office, I mean. Well, the thing is, good luck finding one, because in those places where I went, of course, this was late November, early December, none of them had a tour.
Annie Sargent: And if they did, it would be like at 2:00 PM on a Saturday or something, you know, like what are the odds that I’m going to be there right when they have the tour?
Annie Sargent: So you can’t really count on a live tour guide all the time. The maps are lousy. But you know what’s worse? It’s not having a map, because then you walk around, you miss half of the good stuff, so you end up just needing a map.
Annie Sargent: So bottom line is the GPS can guide you to all these places, and it’s a really precious tool that’s underutilized.
Annie Sargent: Now, I know for a fact that pretty soon Google is going to say, “Oh, I’ll give you a walking tour for free.” And you know where they’re going to take you? Think about it for half a second.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, to places that they get money from. Okay? Having a human write a tour where they decide what are the places of interest is really, very, very nice.
Annie Sargent: And it takes a long time to develop a good GPS tour. I’ve done several. It takes at least two weeks, and that’s if you know the area, if you know the history.
Annie Sargent: So, it’s difficult. So I understand that not every place has it. I know you’re going to say, “Oh, why don’t you write them all?” Yeah, I might write a few more, but it’s difficult to cover it all, so more people need to write those tours.
Annie Sargent: And podcast listeners get an exclusive discount when they buy directly from my website, that way more of the money goes to me instead of Apple or Google.
Annie Sargent: So go to joinusinfrance.com/boutique to see that offer. And if you’re planning a trip to France and you would like some expert help, you can hire me as your itinerary consultant. If you already have a plan, I can help you fine-tune it, and if you’re just overwhelmed by all the choices and you’re not sure what resources to trust, I can design a custom plan for you, and again that’s at joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
[00:48:32] Home Exchange Experiences
Annie Sargent: It’s wonderful to be home and back at my desk recording this introduction. I was on the go for 12 days and now I feel like I can relax.
Annie Sargent: So let me tell you about my Home Exchange experience, and the apartments that I borrowed in Poitiers, which was very nice. In Rouen. Ah, the bathroom here, oof. In Paris, I had problems with that one. And Vichy, which was the perfect exchange.
Annie Sargent: I need to explain to you that there is, on Home Exchange, there are a lot of things that you can select. The filters are very important. One of the things you can select is whether you want to stay at somebody’s primary residence, which means it’s their home.
Annie Sargent: If you come stay, they will go live somewhere else for a few days, which is what happened in two of my exchanges. No, actually three of my exchanges. That happened in Rouen, where the guy went to stay with his girlfriend, who lived nearby. He was quite happy with that. The second one was in Paris, where he went to stay with his parents, and he was very stressed about that. And the third one, she went to stay with her boyfriend as well.
Annie Sargent: Seemed like she was fine doing that. The very first one I did was a secondary residence, where they live upstairs and they have a basement apartment below them, and of course a basement apartment is not ideal because, you know, you don’t get all the light, blah, blah, blah, but I wasn’t there during the day anyway, so it really didn’t matter to me, and it was…
Annie Sargent: I mean, I saw them. I barely heard them. You know, they… She told me a couple of times when we checked in that the insulation was not great, but they were very discreet. Man, these people, I don’t know, they walk on air or something. So that was a wonderful place as well. And I’ve realized that I prefer the secondary residence kind of situation because it’s set up for visitors.
Annie Sargent: It’s usually got its own key box and, you know, it’s a better setup as far as that’s concerned.
Annie Sargent: So are these places nice? Like I just told you about the one in Poitiers, that was great. I showed up, the guy had a Tesla in his driveway, and he was a driving instructor in a Tesla, so that was great for us to chat because I was a driving instructor eons ago for one year, and things have not gotten any better in that profession, it seems.
Annie Sargent: He also had some solar panels in his backyard, and he was using them for his own needs, power needs during the day, which is something I want to do, so it was really interesting to chat with him about that.
Annie Sargent: The second place in Poitiers, the gentleman was very, very friendly, very nice, but his small apartment, it was very dark.
Annie Sargent: It was so dark that I had to… I had brought a headlamp because I didn’t know if I was going to… you know, where I was going to walk late at night or whatever, and I had to use the headlamp in the apartment to find something that I dropped because it was just really dark. So that one was okay, but not ideal.
Annie Sargent: The bathroom was really small, like, mm, too small for me.
Annie Sargent: The third place in Paris, I really had a problem with because it said in… when I booked it, it said that it had a washer and dryer, and by then, I was halfway through my trip, I was planning to use the washer and dryer, and when I got there, he sent me a link to a web page he had developed with the house rules kind of things, which is good, but there it said, “Don’t use the washer,” which is a washer-dryer combo.
Annie Sargent: And I was like, “Ugh. Dang it.” So I had to hand wash my stuff. I didn’t call him to argue with him, I was like, “Eh.” I just didn’t want to mess with it. And also that apartment was… hadn’t been touched since the ’70s. So you know, in France, we have places that have old furniture and things that are very quaint and very charming.
Annie Sargent: This was not it. This was broken shit from the ’70s. And it was my fault because I should have booked… There was another apartment, very… a little further out from Paris, it was twice as much in terms of guest points and it looked nicer on the photos, and I thought, “Ah, it’ll do, it’ll do.”
Annie Sargent: No, the one in Paris I would never recommend to anybody.
Annie Sargent: And this leads me to the next point, but I should say that the one in Vichy was excellent. That was the perfect exchange. This young lady, an art teacher, she just welcomed me. I arrived kind of late. It was 9:20 or something, I arrived late, and she was waiting for me.
Annie Sargent: She had a key box, but she said, “I prefer to welcome people myself,” which is a very nice thing to do. And she was charming and she showed me around.
Annie Sargent: Of course, most things were known to me, like, it’s a French house. I’m used to how French houses work. We have some oddities in France, in our houses, but I was used to them, so it wasn’t a problem.
Annie Sargent: One of the things I want to bring up is that it’s hard to leave a harsh review when you’ve met the people, and when you’ve stayed at their home. Like, where you slept in their bed, kind of thing. That’s why most places end up with four or five stars, so it’s like all the children are equally intelligent, right?
Annie Sargent: No, that’s not reality. If you ask the parents, yes, but no, they’re not.
Annie Sargent: And so, it’s the same with apartments. Don’t go too much by the stars. They don’t mean much. In the future, I would more, like, go by the price, go by the photos.
Annie Sargent: Be very, very picky about the photos. If it looks like a student apartment, yeah, that’s probably what it is.
Annie Sargent: And people don’t want to leave… they don’t want to be harsh in their reviews. They want to be kind. And all of these people were kind to me, so I want to be kind back. But the one in Paris, I really didn’t like. The guy’s idea of clean was not my idea of clean. Like, oh, no. I almost left.
Annie Sargent: To tell you the truth, after the first night, I almost left. But I thought, “Oh, it’s going to be a lot of trouble. I’m only here for a few days and I’ve got a very packed…” I, you know, I had things to do on Friday. I arrived on a Wednesday night. Thursday, we had things planned. I had things planned.
Annie Sargent: I was like, I don’t want to mess with finding another place.” And so I stayed. But, eh, I didn’t like it. But then I went to Poitiers and that was lovely.
[00:54:34] Tips for Home Exchange
Annie Sargent: So, what am I going to do different next time I book a home exchange? Because I was traveling by car, I should have searched over a broader area.
Annie Sargent: Instead of saying Rouen, I should have searched for places in the Seine-Maritime department, or the Vienne department for Poitiers or Allier department for Vichy. Or perhaps just use the map and zoom in on a general area where you want to stop. That shows you a lot more possibilities rather than just show me Poitiers, you know?
Annie Sargent: That’s it. That’s all I want to see. If it’s on the other side of the road, different town, nope, it’s not going to show it to you.
Annie Sargent: Also, I was thinking I’d park the car and take public transportation. But really, that was silly, because I don’t do that at home where I could, so why did I think I was going to do it anywhere else?
Annie Sargent: Of course, I was going to get in my car, go into the city center. I did do some research about where to park in city centers. I always do that. But then I just drove to those parking lots, you know, that… Either underground or above ground. But I paid for parking somewhere in the city center, or parked on the street a couple of times actually. I got lucky. The other thing I would do differently is I would pick one area and explore that for the week. I would not try to do this as a itinerant trip, like two nights here, then move on, two nights there and move on, two nights there. That doesn’t work with home exchange, I don’t think. You would do much better to do three nights minimum, and a week is better, because many homeowners don’t really want to mess with someone who just wants to stay for one or two nights, because it’s too much work getting the place ready every time and cleaning it up afterwards and whatever.
Annie Sargent: The other advice I would have for you is learn how to use the Home Exchange filters very well. Be more picky about amenities than about geographical place. That’s an important one.
Annie Sargent: For me, I should have picked places where I could charge my car overnight, because it just makes my life easier.
Annie Sargent: I actually like charging my car at the grocery store while I stop or on the freeway or whatever. But I don’t need to shop every night, and I certainly don’t need to go on the freeway every day. So having a plug where I sleep is a big plus, and I’ve gotten spoiled at home where that’s what I do.
Annie Sargent: So that would have been an important thing, but for you, it’s going to be something different. Pay attention to the amenities more than the exact place. I really like platforms that let me filter for a specific amenity.
Annie Sargent: That’s why I like Booking.com better than Airbnb. On Booking, you can specify, on the left-hand panel, you can specify what you want.
Annie Sargent: And on Airbnb, they just show you what they want to sell. So it’s a big difference, and I prefer the filters. Home Exchange is not like a hotel. A hotel manager or investor, they look for places that are well-traveled and will fetch a high price per night. Whereas home buyers who end up doing home exchanges, they look for nice places to live at a reasonable price.
Annie Sargent: So be prepared to be a little further from the city center, for a good, you know, value to nice ratio.
Annie Sargent: And in cities like Paris, you’ll use up more guest points just like you’d pay more for a hotel, if you were using money. Don’t try to go cheap in Paris, which is what I did, and I really shouldn’t have.
Annie Sargent: I won’t do that ever again. Price matters. I mean, you know. I thought, “I’m traveling by myself. I can book a studio or a one-bedroom apartment. It’s good enough, right?”
Annie Sargent: After all, when I got married, all we could afford was a studio, and we lived there for a year or two, I can’t remember. It was great!
Annie Sargent: Ah, to be young! It turns out I don’t like studios anymore. Everything is tiny, the amenities are minimal, no desks, one chair, one bed… no, not for me anymore. When I was younger it was fine, but not now. Think about what you need and what you want.
Annie Sargent: And if you want to list a place of your own, which I’m glad I did because I’ve had nothing but good experiences with the people who’ve stayed at my place, and I have a person that I trust who goes after them and sends me photos, and does a clean-up and all that, and it’s always been great.
Annie Sargent: So if you want to list a place of your own, and again, this is not an ad or a sponsorship, realize that it will take a few weeks, perhaps a couple of months before anyone will see the property and rent it from you. Be patient, tweak your listing if necessary, and then ask for reviews if the people don’t leave one after a few days of staying at your place.
Annie Sargent: Overall, it was a great experience. I will continue to do it, but I will just stay longer. I will stay one week and I won’t use it like a kind of move on, move on, move on sort of pace.
Annie Sargent: My thanks to podcast editors Anne and Christian Cotovan who produced the transcripts.
[00:59:14] Next week on the podcast
Annie Sargent: Next week on the podcast, an episode with Elyse about Charles de Gaulle.
Annie Sargent: I know you’ve heard about Charles de Gaulle obviously, but wait until you hear what Elyse has to say. She has a really nice take on him.
Annie Sargent: Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together.
Annie Sargent: Au revoir.
[00:59:33] Copyright
Annie: The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent, and Copyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance. It is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.
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Episode PageCategory: France on a Budget