Table of Contents for this Episode
Categories: France How To, Paris
[00:00:00]
Annie Sargent: This is Join Us in France, episode 594, cinq cent quatre-vingt-quatorze.
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.
Today on the podcast: A Bad Home Exchange Experience
Annie Sargent: Today, I bring you a conversation with Melanie Dixon, an American traveler who loves France and has done multiple home exchanges, both as a guest and as a host.
We get into the real unvarnished truth about home exchange, the rejection cycles, moldy bathrooms, and honest reviews that can backfire.
I still think it’s a fantastic way to travel, but after doing two very positive episodes about home exchange, I think you [00:01:00] need to go in with eyes wide open, especially in Paris and other popular French cities where demand is much higher than supply, hence, it’s easy to get reservations for properties that are really not up to snuff.
Podcast supporters
Annie Sargent: This podcast runs on chocolatine, coffee, and listeners like you. You book an itinerary consult, Take a VoiceMap tour of Paris.
Join me for a day trip in my electric car around the southwest of France, or support the show on Patreon. That’s patreon.com/joinus. It all keeps things going.
If you want ad-free episodes, the link is in the show notes.
All the products and services I offer are at joinusinfrance.com/boutique. If you shop on Amazon, start your shopping day at joinusinfrance.com/amazon. It won’t cost you any extra, but it helps the show.
And if you want to see more of France, browse episodes at [00:02:00] joinusinfrance.com/episodes and get a free weekly recap at joinusinfrance.com/newsletter.
Magazine segment
Annie Sargent: For the Magazine part of the podcast, today after my chat with Melanie Dixon, I’ll discuss the electrification of France, both as a new push from our prime minister and personally. Hopeful news, really.
And really important, there are two spots now open for the 2026 Bootcamp happening from Saturday, 3rd October to Saturday, 10th October.
If you are interested in joining us in France for real, email me, annie@joinusinfrance.com, and I’ll send you all the details.
Home Exchange Reality Check
Annie Sargent: Bonjour, Melanie Dixon, and welcome to Join Us in France.
Melanie Dixon: Bonjour, Annie. Thank you.
Annie Sargent: Well, wonderful to have [00:03:00] you. We want to talk about… So at this point, I’ve published two episodes about home exchange, and both were quite, you know, positive, and we emphasized a lot of the good things that can happen with home exchange.
But sometimes you reached out to me and you said, “You know, sometimes things don’t go as well.” And in the meantime, I’ve experienced my own, four home exchanges, and where I was the guest, and two where people came to my place. And yes, sometimes things are not great.
So tell us a little bit about your experience with home exchange. Where did they happen, and what happened?
Melanie Dixon: Yeah.
Annie’s Paris Stays
Melanie Dixon: So I have been hosted, so I’ve stayed in someone else’s home twice, and both times have been in Paris. And then I’ve also had… I think I’ve done about four or five exchanges in my own home, so I’ve hosted [00:04:00] people. I would say all the times people have stayed in my home have been excellent. I had no problems. I mean, there was a little snafu with timing and check-in, but nothing wrong with the… You know, the people didn’t do anything to my apartment. Everything was great.
Paris, so I’ve done the two in Paris. I stayed in June of last year for two and a half weeks, and that went really well, except it took me 43 emails until I found a place. That means reaching out to 43 different people, telling my little story of, like, why I want to be in Paris, why I want to stay at their place.
And basically getting rejected every time until the, you know, the 44th email.
So that, on that end, it was challenging. But once I was in the home, it was great. I got to meet the hosts. They were lovely people. It was very clean. It was in a great location. Nothing to complain about at all.
When a Place Feels Off
Melanie Dixon: The one with a little [00:05:00] bit of an issue was the last one. I was… I stayed for a week, in the 15th arrondissement. There weren’t very many pictures online, so maybe that should’ve been a tell. And I got there. It was, you know, rickety staircase. The light in the hallway didn’t quite work, and then I get in, and it’s moldy, mold in the bathroom. It kind of looked like a large studio apartment had been converted to have rooms, like a bedroom, a kitchen, and a little living room.
It just looked like the construction was very amateur. There was exposed wires. It just… There wasn’t a lot of maintenance that had been done, and care for this home. And yeah, the experience was not great. I didn’t end up talking to Home Exchange about it, so I didn’t, like, ask for a refund. I ended up leaving one night early, but [00:06:00] that was just because I ended up wanting to stay at the airport the night before my early flight.
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. Okay.
Why Booking Is So Hard
Annie Sargent: So let’s take these one at a time. Let’s start with the difficulty in booking places, because I’ve experienced the same thing. You reach out to people. There’s a good messaging system within the platform.
You email people. Obviously, you’re going to be presented with a choice of different properties that you might consider, and you can say, “Contact this person,” and they send a message. It even tells you if that person typically responds fast or not. There are some people where it says, “Responds fast within 24 hours.”
Clearly, there are some people who don’t respond for, like, two weeks, so, eh, not ideal. And the problem is you have to do that many times before you hit a good one, at least when you’re new to this. Like, maybe, because you have to read, you have to look through all the photos. You [00:07:00] have to read the description. You have to read the reviews if there are any.
Then you have to remember, but that would be the same for an Airbnb. I mean, you have to remember which ones seemed good to you or not. And Home Exchange knows that this is a problem, because they actually save the message that you sent to the one host. And next time you try to message another person, it will present that message to you again, and you can just modify it a little bit. So they know that you’re going to have to do this over and over and over again.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah.
Rejections and Newbie Profiles
Melanie Dixon: I don’t really know why people say no. I was very confused, because I made sure… Because it is, like, very similar, like you said, to Airbnb. It shows the calendar of availability. So I’m not… I wasn’t asking for dates that they weren’t, that weren’t open on the calendar.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Melanie Dixon: I don’t know what other criteria. I mean, that first exchange, I had not completed any exchanges, so I didn’t have any sort of rating or [00:08:00] reviews of my own, so that might have been a detractor for people.
Annie Sargent: But it does show that you’re new, you’re a newcomer, so of course.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, I can’t get a rating until I stay at someone’s house, so.
Annie Sargent: Right. Right.
Melanie Dixon: But I’m wondering, I am curious why people would say no to someone if their calendar is showing open.
Annie Sargent: Right, and they don’t really explain. They don’t have to explain. They just write back and they say, “Oh, no, it’s not going to work out.”
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, there’s sort of a pre-written response that you can send that says…
Annie Sargent: Yep.
Melanie Dixon: … I don’t remember exactly, something like, “Sorry, it’s not available at this time.”
Annie Sargent: Right, and if you ask questions, for example, for me, I tend to choose the ones that mention an EV plug because it makes my life so much easier. I can just arrive at night, plug it in, then, you know, go to sleep. Next day, go on my adventures.
So some mention an EV plug, but in Brittany, in the whole of Brittany there was… I found one that had an actual photo of the [00:09:00] EV plug.
And so I was like, “Ah, I know exactly what this is.” And this was not at their house. This was in the village, there’s a charger that’s, you know, 100 meters away from the apartment, from the house. So it’s fair to say that they have an EV plug, because if it’s that close to where you are, you know, that’s fine. But all the other ones, even the ones that do say they have an EV plug, they don’t show it to you. And so you’re like, “Well, can you tell me more? What is this?” You know, “What sort of plug do you have?” et cetera. And so if you ask any follow-up questions, they may or may not answer those questions. And you think, “Oh, if I ask too many follow-up questions, maybe they’re not going to select me or something.” You know? I don’t know. It was, it’s a bit odd. It’s an odd dance.
Melanie Dixon: Yes. I understand. I don’t really know why people would do that. I feel like, whenever someone inquires about my apartment, I’m, you know, happy to answer any questions or… And I wouldn’t say no unless, I don’t know, they had a bunch of bad ratings or [00:10:00] something.
Video Calls and Photo Red Flags
Melanie Dixon: I like to do a screener call with them before I completely say yes.
So what I’ll say is “I would like to have a video call with you. Are you available at such time?” And we organize a video call. And we just talk. I mean, it doesn’t need to be super long, just sort of to get the feel of the person. I’ll show them around the apartment. And that makes me feel a lot better.
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm.
Melanie Dixon: Just who’s going to stay at my place. And I did it in Paris, and the first time I had a video call with the person. So I wasn’t even hosting, I was being hosted. I had a video call with her. She showed me around the apartment. That felt good. But the thing, I didn’t do that this second time where I had the bad experience, and I’m kind of kicking myself, because I’m wondering, if I’d had that call, or if he’d immediately said, “No, I don’t want to do it,” that would’ve been a red flag for me.
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Melanie Dixon: So that’s a way to sort of catch these things is have these video calls.
Annie Sargent: Yes. I think that’s a biggie. And of course,if you want to arrange several exchanges in a row because [00:11:00] you’re going to be away for three weeks or a month or whatever, then yeah, you’re going to have to have video calls with all these people. But I think it’s worth it as well.
Melanie Dixon: I agree. I think it’s worth it, and I, like I said, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t do it for that last one, because I think I would’ve figured it out in the call.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Although it’s hard to see the details, you know, but you can get a feel for…
If there are very few photos I’m not going. I’m not even applying. I mean, you’re trying to rent, well, rent, you know, quotes, your place out, of course people want photos. They want at least 10 photos of… There are also people who put a ton of photos, but they’re, like, photos of the beach and of the, or the mountains or… I’m like, well, I’m familiar with the attractions of the area, you know? I don’t need to see the Mont Saint-Michel. I know what that is. I need to see your house because, you know, I’m not going to stay there at the Mont Saint-Michel.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I’ve seen that, where they do the neighborhood, and you’re like, “Well, that’s good, but I really want to see your place [00:12:00] inside.”
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Melanie Dixon: Interior. I want to see the bathroom. I want to see the kitchen and…
Annie Sargent:
Dirty Homes and Missing Amenities
Annie Sargent: I had a bad experience as well, and it was mostly because it was just grimy. I mean, I’m sorry, but the place was not… The sink was, had, like, permanent deep stains. It hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. I tried to clean it, but I mean, I’m not going to go out and buy, you know, the supplies to do a deep clean of a place that I don’t own. And you do need… I mean, when it gets to that point, you need some specific supplies to clean this stuff.
Melanie Dixon: Yep.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: You need some deep cleaners and scrub brushes and everything.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, and gloves and things. Anyway, and it wasn’t just the sink. I mean, everything was in a pretty sorry state of repair, and the other thing that happened is, in the description it said that they had a washer and dryer, which is great because it was at the end of my two weeks, and so I thought, “Oh, great. I can do some laundry.”
And when I got there, the guy [00:13:00] had put together a website of you know, things to know about the apartment, which was great, but one of the things is, “Please don’t use the washer or dryer.” And I’m like, “Well, like, you listed them. Why now you tell me I can’t use them?” And it was the only thing that was modern in that place. They had actually bought these two things fairly recently. So I was like, “Oh, geez, what a bummer.” And so I just… You know, I didn’t complain to the guy directly, I just did my little hand-washing things.
Refunds and Reviewing Honestly
Annie Sargent: But then when I got back, I thought, “Okay, I’m going to take photos of what’s wrong with this place, and I’m going to say something to Home Exchange.” And I have to say, they were very good because, I mean, it took a few back-and-forth emails with Home Exchange, obviously, but they asked for details. They asked for photos, and I supplied what they asked for, and I explained, and they refunded the whole thing.
Melanie Dixon: Oh, that’s great.
Annie Sargent: Yes, they refunded the whole thing. I [00:14:00] kind of told the lady, you know, it’s hard to leave… Because, okay, so you have five stars for cleanliness, is one of the things, and I just, I think I gave it three stars. I wanted to give it zero stars, but you can’t really do that. It’s an awkward feeling. Like, at a hotel, if a hotel bathroom is disgusting, I will just put that in my review. I don’t care. Like, it’s a hotel. I don’t care.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: At somebody’s house, do you really slam them for having bad idea… You know, not…
Melanie Dixon: It’s more personal.
Annie Sargent: And the reason why I decided to say something, I don’t think I would have said anything if it was just that it wasn’t clean, but the fact that I couldn’t use the washing machine really peeved me because it specifically said, “There’s a washer and dryer.” Like, then don’t list it, you know?
Melanie Dixon: Yeah. Yeah, I had a similar thing. I didn’t take photos actually because I didn’t really want to remember it, [00:15:00] but I did write a review, I did a three star on the cleanliness too, and I also was conflicted in writing it.
For me, it was the cleanliness plus the staircase, the light didn’t work on the top level and it was dark, and, you know, I was carrying my suitcase up and down.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: And anyways, and the, just the construction of it, the exposed wires and everything. Anyway, so when I was writing, I did… Like I said, I was conflicted about writing a bad review because it doesn’t seem the norm to write honest reviews on Home Exchange. It’s not like Airbnb where it’s a business. You know, this isn’t a business.
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm.
Melanie Dixon: People aren’t getting any money. But I felt like I could not honestly put that that was, you know, a five-star cleanliness experience. I wanted people to know, and I didn’t want to hurt the host by any means, you know? Like, he was very nice. He was… You know, he make sure to reach out to me, communicate anything, and he would check on me, like, “Is everything okay?” And suggest restaurants in the neighborhood, [00:16:00] everything. He was great in that respect.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, that’s the thing, they’re nice people.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah. And he’s a good person. It’s just his apartment is just not up to snuff, and…
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: … so I did end up giving three stars for cleanliness, and I put it in my review, but I was very objective. You know, I just said, like, there was some mold in the bathroom. You know, I just listed out the things, and as soon…
So another thing with the reviews is the reviews are not published for anyone to see until either both parties have written a review on each other or, like, three weeks have passed. I’m not exactly sure of the timeframe. I think it’s three weeks.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s three weeks as well.
When Hosts React Badly
Melanie Dixon: But anyways, we both wrote reviews on each other right away, so they were, once I wrote… He wrote a review first, and then I wrote mine. So once mine was written and sent, he could see it, and literally within an hour I got a WhatsApp message from him, eh, you know, kind of saying things that weren’t very nice. You know, he saw my review and [00:17:00] was not happy about it.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: That was kind of hurtful. You know, I just thought, like, be a grown-up. I wrote, you know, very objective things, and it’s true about your apartment. I’m sorry, there is mold in the bathroom.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, and exposed wires.
Melanie Dixon: Exposed wires and all these other things, so.
Annie Sargent: That’s just a fact. Yeah. That’s another thing, is because you need to be communicating with this person seamlessly, you will give them your phone number so you can do WhatsApp.
And then they have your phone number and your WhatsApp, so are you going to be totally honest in your review or not? And you cannot see each other’s review until both have sent in a review. So like I got notification that, oh, so-and-so wrote a review of you as a guest, but I couldn’t see what they wrote until I wrote a review myself.
And then there was another place, the very first place where I stayed, I couldn’t… They never sent me an email asking for a review, and I was like, “Huh, did I miss it? What happened?” Maybe it went to spam or whatever.
And I couldn’t see a place to leave a review, but I wanted to because [00:18:00] that had been a very good experience. I wanted to say that. And I reached out via message to the guy and asked him. And he told me where to go, and I did it.
Spotting Review Red Flags
Annie Sargent: But I think if, if you see that there are a lot of people who’ve stayed in a place but never left a review, that to me… Because it does show you, it shows you that so-and-so stayed from this, in this month, this year, and if this person didn’t leave a review I’m like, “Okay.” Because it, again, because you’re staying in somebody’s home, you would leave a review, wouldn’t you? I would feel obligated to leave a review.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, I don’t know if I definitely abide by that because when I stayed for two and a half weeks in Paris, the first time, she never, the host never left a review on me, and I think I was pretty good.
And I noticed she doesn’t do any reviews. I looked at other people that have stayed.
So there are people that just don’t write reviews. There’s that.
Annie Sargent: Okay.
Melanie Dixon: [00:19:00] Yeah, I guess if there were a lot that didn’t have any reviews, but like a few here and there, I wouldn’t put that as a red flag.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, yeah. See, for me, I look at red flags as anything but a five star. Even if it’s a four star, especially on cleanliness, be careful. That is not good if they don’t give it five stars.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, they’re just being polite.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, they’re just being polite. And too many people who don’t leave reviews, like if they’ve had 30 exchanges but only three people wrote a review, I’m like, “What?” And oh, I had a, a third one. I forgot. It just escaped my mind. But you are taking a risk when you do a home exchange that it will go smoothly, you know, smoothly or not smoothly. They’re both possible.
So now I’m trying to arrange for home exchange in Brittany for next summer, and some people… I’ve reached out to so many people it’s [00:20:00] ridiculous, you know? But I do want specific dates, Because I want to go when they have the Breton festivals, and so I want to be in Quimper at the right time, you know, because I just want to be there for that, to see that at least some of the time. And it’s really hard. It’s really hard. There are some people say, “It’s too early. I don’t know what my own vacation dates are going to be.” And then you have the people who just say, “Nope, not a good fit.”
There was this place, oh, it looked dreamy. It was like, like for sure this guy’s never going to accept me, because it was just a gorgeous place. They probably just put it on home exchange to exchange with friends or with people that they know. I wonder if people do that.
Melanie Dixon: But wouldn’t you just… Well, why would you pay the $200 membership fee then if you’re just going to exchange with friends?
Annie Sargent: I guess. I guess you’re right. You do have an insurance, because they do have, they do carry insurance and things like that, but…
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, sometimes I wonder why people are on the platform because, like, there’s no calendar availability or they seem to just say [00:21:00] no. I don’t know.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. I have a bit of a problem with my own apartment, which is a secondary residence, because I know my family is going to want to use it. And I ask them, “Give me dates of when you want to go, specific dates,” but they don’t. And so I, I’m like, “Ah, should I just open it up and whatever happens happens?” But then I’m going to feel badly if they say, “Oh, I would like to go from this date to this date.” “Oh, it’s already booked up,” you know?
(mid-roll ad spot)
Annie Sargent:
Points Pricing Doesn’t Flex
Annie Sargent: Now, this is another problem that has nothing to do with any of this that we have been discussing, but another beef that I have with Home Exchange is that the number of points is a bit of a blunt instrument.
Because if, especially at a seaside or a mountain resort or a place like that, clearly there are times where it’s, you should be able to charge more points for those high-demand times.
Melanie Dixon: Mm-hmm.
Annie Sargent: [00:22:00] And Home Exchange doesn’t do this. It’s going to show you the same amount of guest points no matter when you go. And that’s just not right because, you know, it’s… I mean, like you’re in San Francisco, right?
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, and I think we mentioned this on our introductory call. Yeah, the points for my place is like half of what the equivalent in Paris would be. Which doesn’t make any sense because San Francisco has extremely high rent. Our rents are probably double Paris.
I’ve looked into it, and it doesn’t really make sense why I could only charge 100 points for my apartment, whereas in Paris, this… the equivalent of my apartment would be, like, 200 or 250 per night.
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes. So you can… They have made it easier to play with the number of points.
Melanie Dixon: Yes.
Annie Sargent: I would never go too low. If a place is not asking for enough points, I’m like, “Hmm, why is that?” I don’t know. [00:23:00] It might be a studio. It might be a student studio that’s not maintained very well. I’d rather go with the higher points and just, you know, bite the bullet. Just go with the nicer places.
Earning Points and Cancellations
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, I would too. The only thing is I have trouble obtaining points because, I don’t know, it’s sort of, it’s sort of a catch-22. Like, you have to have people stay at your place to get the points.
And then… But you can get them in advance of someone staying. As soon as someone makes a sort of reservation at your place, you get all those points. Like, if someone’s staying, you know, five nights at my place, 100 per night, I get the 500 points as soon as they sort of commit and confirm. So then I have those 500 points to stay somewhere else.
Annie Sargent: Yes.
Melanie Dixon: Even though that person has not stayed at my home yet.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Melanie Dixon: So that is good.
Annie Sargent: Yes.
Melanie Dixon: I like that they do that, because I was worried it would be like the person had to stay first. It was… I thought it was going to be like loyalty points at, like, you know, hotels.com or [00:24:00] something, you know? You have to wait 30 days after. No, you get them as soon.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, you don’t accrue anything until it’s happened. Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: So, well, I don’t know exactly if someone cancels because I did have a situation where there were people staying at my… They were going to stay at my place. I had already had the points. I actually used those points to stay in Paris. And a few days before, they texted me, they had my phone number, and said that… because they were coming in town for a wedding, and they were like, “Actually, we’ve decided we’re going to stay at our friend that lives down the street from you. So would it be okay if we cancel?” So that was really nice that they asked in advance. And I said, “Well, I actually just used those points to book somewhere in Paris.”
I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if I’m going to go at, like, a negative balance or, you know…
I didn’t know, and so they were actually really kind, and they’re like, “Let’s just… We’ll just keep it and, you know, maybe we’ll stay at your place, maybe we’ll stay at our friend’s house,” whatever. They weren’t sure. So that was really nice of them that they kept it.
But I don’t know if someone who actually, like, maybe [00:25:00] needed to cancel, like if they had to cancel their trip or something like that, I don’t know how Home Exchange handles that.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, I don’t either. I do know that it… if you’re too close to the date, then even the host cannot refund your points.
Melanie Dixon: Oh, okay.
Annie Sargent: So if you’ve booked, and it’s the day before, and you go, “Oh, oops, I can’t go,” and the host wants to be nice and refund you the points, they can’t, because it happened to me. I couldn’t refund to these people. They had booked for just a few nights, and they told me, like, I mean, the morning of that they couldn’t come. They had a problem. And I’m like, “Well, I’ll… that’s fine.” My response was almost immediate. I just said, “Well, that’s fine. I’ll just refund your points.” And I went to do that, and I couldn’t. And so I just told them, “I apologize, but I can’t see any way to refund the points. Do you know if there’s a way?” Because they had been on the platform longer than me. And they said, “No. Actually, we figured you wouldn’t be able to.”
Melanie Dixon: Oh.
Support and Cancellations
Melanie Dixon: Would they be able to call Home Exchange? Because I’ve [00:26:00] felt like when I’ve called their customer service line, they’ve been really helpful, or emailed them. I think mainly I’ve communicated via email, but they do have, like, a chat, a live chat. And they’ve been really helpful every time I’ve contacted them, so.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. I’ve read stories of people who say, “Oh, mine fell through,” and they found someone else right away. They do reach out to other possible homes that might be available in the area, and they do respond to any criticism, usually very positively. Like, you know, they’re not being jerks. It’s just the… Finding the right home is difficult.
Points Pitfalls and Pausing
Annie Sargent: I have some good friends who put their home, their place on Home Exchange in the US, and they had actually two… They had their own residence and two very small studios attached to it. They had them on Airbnb, and also they did Home Exchange because Airbnb became more regulated in their town, and they had to take it off [00:27:00] of Airbnb. But Home Exchange they could still do.
And they accrued points, they, Because it’s a really nice little place, but they couldn’t find a way to spend the points because everywhere they wanted to go, and they had some specific ideas about where exactly they wanted to go, and they couldn’t find an exchange in those towns. Either there weren’t any or they got rejected, and then they’re like, “Well, what do we do now?” And so they just gave up. They just… And if you stop participating in the program, you’re just going to lose all your points.
If you don’t use them, you lose them.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah. That’s something else I was going to look into, is if there, you can kind of pause your membership for a while. Like if you know that you’re not going to be traveling for six months or something and you could pause it. But I don’t know, that’s something I was going to look into actually.
Annie Sargent: I don’t know what the answer to that is, that would be a good question before joining. You know, is it something I have to do like forever after? I’ve joined a Facebook group with [00:28:00] a lot of people who do Home Exchange, and there’s this couple, I think they had 12,000 points or something because they had been, they haven’t been using them at all. They wanted to save them all up for when they retire. I’m like, well, but by then, who knows? Like, that’s, you know, in their case it was years away. I’m like, that seems like a risky thing to do.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, and then you have to, you still have to pay that membership every year and, you know, it’s not completely free, although it’s not too bad, but…
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Best Length of Stay
Annie Sargent: Anyway, I think Home Exchange is a really good platform, but in my opinion it is best used for people who want to stay at least a week. It’s really not designed for short stays because if you’re only there for a few days, well, it’s the same amount of work for the hosts whether you stay one night or seven nights really. I mean, you know. [00:29:00]
Cleaning Fees Reality
Annie Sargent: And since there’s no money exchanged… Now that’s another thing we should mention is you’re not supposed to have any fees on top of the points that you either spend or accrue, but very often in the description itself it says, “We’d like to charge, we charge a 50 euro fee or whatever for cleaning.” Which I don’t see anything wrong with that, but it’s really not supposed to work that way. It hasn’t gotten out of control. The ones I’ve seen were always very reasonable.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, the first apartment I stayed in it was 50 euros and I saw the cleaning person, so that wasn’t just them pocketing the cash. Like, I actually saw the cleaning person come.
So the second place I stayed, the one that it wasn’t very clean, it had a 20 euro fee and I think, I’m just assuming the owner was pocketing that.
Which, okay, it’s 20 euro.
They should increase it and actually have a cleaning person. [00:30:00] Competent cleaner, come do this.
Yeah. The problem though in San Francisco if you were to get a cleaning person, I mean, it’s not cheap here. I mean, I don’t even…
Annie Sargent: No. It wouldn’t be 50 bucks, would it?
Melanie Dixon: For my apartment it would be 150, 200.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: And that’s just how, that’s just because it’s expensive here in this city.
Annie Sargent: Yes, yes, yes. There are lots of locations in the world where…
Melanie Dixon: And I would feel bad charging someone like $200 for a cleaning fee because that’s like the whole membership fee for a year.
Annie Sargent: Yes, yes, yes. No, that’s true. That’s an excellent point. I haven’t had to pay a cleaning fee. I’m not opposed to that. In my apartment in Spain that I exchange, I actually do pay a cleaning person to come and do it. It’s okay. I’ll eat it. It’s fine. I’ve never asked, but there are plenty of descriptions where they say, please, you know, leave 50 euros on the countertop before you go.
Host Gifts and Local Feel
Annie Sargent: And most people it’s actually, it doesn’t, like they don’t ask for [00:31:00] anything, and not only that, but they will leave you… this one lady in Vichy, she had bought Vichy candy, Because Vichy is very famous for several different kinds of candy. She had left a bag of Vichy candy. She had left, I can’t remember, there were a couple of things. She had left a booklet with a lot of recommendations, and I think there was some juice or something. It wasn’t wine at her place, but lots of people leave a bottle of wine or whatever.
In France a bottle of wine is not very expensive really, so it doesn’t cost you that much to do that. Seems like a nice thing to do. The thing I do like about Home Exchange very much is that once you have found a good place to stay, most likely, it’s going to be lovely. Like, it’s going to be you’re really staying in somebody’s house, it’s local, most of these people are lovely. You meet them, even if it’s for 10 minutes. This lady, she came to show me around, I got to just chat, you know. She had one of these French, finicky French doors where if you don’t lift the [00:32:00] handle all the way up, you can’t lock it. If you’ve been in France enough times, even at Airbnbs, you know how they work.
She was like, “Well, I have to explain this every time, because sometimes people don’t…” I’m like, “Oh, we have a, one like that at home as well.” So it’s, so I’m familiar. But I can see how people wouldn’t know this.
So she was lovely, she was friendly, and so most of the time it’s lovely.
Melanie Dixon: My first experience, the two and a half weeks in Paris, it was lovely. The host, she wasn’t there, but her boyfriend was there to let me in. The same thing with the door. It was more the unlocking the door, the front door. He gave me, he showed me how to do it and then he goes, “Okay, now you do it,” and I totally couldn’t do it, so we had to do it like three or four times.
And he goes, “Normally we just send people a video.” I’m like if you had just sent me a video of this, I would have not figured it out. So it was really great that he was there. And yeah. Really lovely people.
Hosting Prep and Amenities
Melanie Dixon: They, I think they left me some wine, and I ended up leaving them wine when I left. [00:33:00] Usually when I have people come stay at my place, I don’t actually drink coffee, so I specifically have a machine for them, and set up some things.
You know, I’ll leave some kind of gift, and I do have a little information sheet. It’s not too big, but just kind of the businesses in the area that I recommend, and how to use the laundry and stuff like that.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. There were some people who asked me to stay, and they ended up not taking it because I didn’t have a crib, a crib or a folding crib at least. And I’m like, “Oh yeah, I should just totally buy one of those. For 100 euros I can buy a nice, clean, used one and just have it. Like, you know, just have it.” Because of course there are families that are going to come with babies.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: That makes sense, you know?
And they don’t want to bring it themselves.Yeah, that’s a lot to ask. But so I think there’s a lot positive about Home Exchange, it’s just, at least for someone like me who just have been on the platform just a year, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of emails to find places. And when you do, you have to be picky. Yeah, you really have to be picky.There’s some [00:34:00] places I’m like, “Nope, nope, nope, nope. I’m not even applying.” Like, you know. And usually if there’s just two or three photos, I’m sorry, no.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: No. Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah. You have to be picky, and you have to also read between the lines.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: Like, reviews, like you said, if there’s a four star in cleanliness, that really means two, you know?
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. And it’s best for people who are flexible.
If you must have these two days, like, mm, probably not ideal. And you have to plan ahead. You have to just say, “Okay, I want to be in Paris between this date and this date. Let’s see if I can find something.”
And once you have found something, then get your airplane and all of that, if you’re really relying on… you know, if you don’t have a plan B, like if you couldn’t go to a hotel. And I think it’s not good for short stays either. I think a week is probably the shortest.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah. I’ve had people stay at mine for two nights. I did that a few times. But like you said, the [00:35:00] setup and everything to have someone stay at your apartment is so much work that I changed it now on my profile it says minimum seven nights.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: And there was someone that wanted to stay three nights, and I said, “Let’s compromise. Why don’t you pay for five nights?” And they just stayed three.
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm.
Melanie Dixon: But that was sort of like a one-off. They seemed really nice. But yeah.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: It’s a lot of work, Because I, you know, I put different linens, and I set out the coffee thing and, you know, then I clean really heavily.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yes.
Screening and Red Flags
Annie Sargent: And okay, so one time I had a guy write to me, no, actually he didn’t write to me directly. He got Home Exchange, somebody who worked at Home Exchange, to email me to ask me if I would be okay him booking for one week but staying two weeks.
Melanie Dixon: Oh.
Annie Sargent: And I was like… So I wrote back and I said, ” Why would I agree to that? I don’t understand what’s in it for me.” Like, and she said, “Well, it’s just okay, some people ask sometimes [00:36:00] if… because they want to get a cheaper price.”
Melanie Dixon: Right.
Annie Sargent: I’m like, “Okay.” I’ve also had a few requests where the person said, “It’s not for me. I’m a member of Home Exchange, but I’m trying to book this for my sister.” And, I’m like, eh.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, does the insurance cover other people? And yeah, you’re like, “I don’t know what her star rating is.”
Annie Sargent: Exactly, the sister might be a lunatic. We don’t know. You know?
Melanie Dixon: Or it could not even, it could just not even be her sister, it could just be some friend or…
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. So that one I turned away as well, and I didn’t explain. I just said, “No, I’m sorry,” you know, “It’s not going to work out.” But if you’re the one, if you’re the member and you make the requests, and the dates seem to be open, it’s true, the first thing you pointed out, it’s why? Why? You know.
(mid-roll ad spot)
Home Exchange vs Airbnb
Annie Sargent: So another thing to consider is that for a lot of people, it’s going to be either Airbnb [00:37:00] or some sort of Home Exchange, right?
Melanie Dixon: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: You might think that Airbnb is more predictable, and definitely Airbnb, it’s easier to find places. First of all, Airbnb, they show you who they want you to book, right? They have an algorithm that decides for you what you’re most likely to book. Whereas Home Exchange, no, you just see a map, and you see dots on the map, and you decide that I’m going to click on this one or that one.
So there’s more decision on your part than with Airbnb. Because you know Airbnb, there’s thousands of them in Paris, and they’re just… you’re likely just looking at the first 10 on the first page, right? You’re not going to look at page 25.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, well, I do look at the map on Airbnb. I do kind of zoom in. Similar, I actually, my method of looking is very similar on Home Exchange as Airbnb.
But I feel like the reason I do like Airbnb more is because you’re not likely to get sort of rejected by the host.
Annie Sargent: [00:38:00] Mm-hmm.
Melanie Dixon: I mean, I have never tried to book an Airbnb and they said no. I mean, I know they do have the right of refusal but I’ve never seen that really invoked.
Yeah, it would be faster. Like, if you just don’t have the time to spend and all this kind of back and forth.
Yeah, you’re just like, “I’m just going to pay it.”
Annie Sargent: Yes, you just pay them the money, and that’s probably why it’s harder because there’s no money exchange in Home Exchange. And so people are less, eh, maybe pickier. I don’t know.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah. You mean pickier, the host would be pickier on who they want?
Annie Sargent: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Melanie Dixon: Yes. Yes.
Annie Sargent: They want assurances that this person is okay.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah. That’s true.
Annie Sargent: Whereas in Airbnb, people know that there’s going to probably some stuff is going to get broken, and, you know, the neighbors might complain about noise, they just know these things.
But at the same time, you can save so much money by doing Home Exchange versus Airbnb.
Yes. It sort of [00:39:00] outweighs it, yeah. You’re sort of like, “Well, do I want to spend the money or do I want to save money, or do I want to spend the money on other things in my trip? Do I want to do some fine dining or, you know. Yes. In my case, I’m never going to ask for Home Exchange for less than a week, for sure. Like, no, it’s just not worth it. And I will be picky. I’m not going to go, even if I’m just traveling by myself, I’m not going to get the cheapest place I can find. And if it looks like a student studio, if that’s my impression, I’m not going there. Just not going there.
Melanie Dixon: No way.
Transparency and Pet Care
Melanie Dixon: And you also, another thing is, well, I noticed this in Paris, is that people, if they don’t mention the elevator, there’s probably not an elevator.
Annie Sargent: Yes.
Melanie Dixon: Don’t think like, “Oh, they just didn’t mention it.” Oh, no. They left it out intentionally.
Annie Sargent: Right. Right.
Melanie Dixon: Because it, I rarely would see no elevator or no lift in the description. It would just [00:40:00] either be elevator or nothing about it.
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes. Oh, and sometimes they don’t even tell you if there’s, like, steps or, uh…
So for my apartment, I say there’s 20 steps to get up to the apartment. I mean, it doesn’t change anything, but if somebody has limited mobility, they need to know.
Melanie Dixon: Well, no.
Annie Sargent: If you can’t do 20 steps, don’t book this, you know? And there are some profiles that are clearly written for maximum transparency. They’ve just shown you all the photos, they tell you all the things. Great.
There’s people who tell you about… because you can go stay places where they are going to leave the cat for you to take care of, which is fine, you know?
Melanie Dixon: So the place I stayed in Paris the first time, the host, she had a cat, but she said sometimes it goes and stays with a friend. And I am allergic to cats, so I-
Annie Sargent: Ah!
Melanie Dixon: … She said, “Do you want the cat there or not?” And I said, “I would prefer not.” And so she was like, “Okay, I’m just going to arrange to have the cat with my [00:41:00] friend,” and it was no problem.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: So people are flexible too. I mean, some people, not everyone, but if they have pets.
You know, sometimes you water plants. I mean I have plants. I don’t ask it, but people have stayed at my place and they’re like, “Oh, we’ll water your plants for you.” I’m like, “Thanks. I don’t even do that.” You’re doing more than I do.
Annie Sargent: And you know, when you ask, when you have exchanges with people, if they give you very evasive sort of yes/no answers, like, oh, don’t know, that’s a big no-no. Like, if somebody takes the trouble to reach out to you to ask you a few questions about your Home Exchange place, just tell them, you know.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, when they’re not super transparent, that’s also a red flag.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. That’s a red flag. Yeah.
Melanie Dixon: Because, yeah, you need to be honest about how your home is and…
Staying Safe and Selective
Annie Sargent: So do you think you will continue being on the platform or… ?
Melanie Dixon: I think so, but use it with greater discretion. Now that I’ve sort of had this negative experience recently. Now I know to keep… [00:42:00] I’m always going to do a video call either way, if someone’s staying at my place or I’m staying at someone else’s.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
If they don’t respond to it, that’s another red flag.
Reviews are harder because, like you said, not all people are super honest. If there’s something with a four star, that really means probably two you know, two or three.
Annie Sargent: Well, and like most of the reviews are the same. They say, “Oh, great communication with this host, friendly people.” Yes, of course, most people are going to be friendly to you, and most people will respond to your text messages.
Sure, but could you get a good night’s sleep? Those are the things that matter. And some places they just don’t mention that at all. There are places where they say, “Oh, our kids love playing with their…” Because they have children themselves, so their kids loved using the toys that were in the house.
Well, in my case, I’m never going to play with their toys, but it suits some… I mean, if you’re a family and you’re showing up with kids, that’s important. You want to know that. So I think if the description is very short, if there’s not very many [00:43:00] photos, if they answer the minimal, you know, minimum whatever, like move on, just move on to another one. That’s what I’m going to do anyway.
Melanie Dixon: But yeah, I will continue to use it, for sure. It’s a great way to save money.
Annie Sargent: I will continue as well, just be very, very careful. And I do know that it’s… there’s a time investment in Home Exchange which you would not have looking for a hotel or an Airbnb.
It would be much faster if you just want to book a hotel, it’s just going to take you 10 minutes probably, unless you’re really, really picky. But most of the time, a hotel, like it’s straightforward.
With a Home Exchange, yeah, you’re going to have to reach out to a lot of people. You’re going to have to be careful. You have to perhaps have a Zoom call or a WhatsApp face-to-face thing, which is a good idea I think. I did that with one person. And it was their very first time putting their place on, and they were lovely. It was a couple, you know, and my husband was totally ignoring me, and I was like, “Would you like to meet my husband as well?” And he’s like, “Oh, yeah, we would.” So [00:44:00] I had to run after him where are you go- where are you go- so they could… And he was like, “Oh, you take care of it. I don’t care.” But they wanted to see him, like, you know, which makes sense, I mean…
Where It Works Best
Melanie Dixon: And do you normally use it just in France, or do you go to other countries?
Annie Sargent: I’ve only used it in France. That’s my plan is to use it in France because when I go to Spain, I have my own place. And when we go other places, usually we’re only going to be there for a couple of nights. We move on too fast for a home exchange.
But when I’m in France, my aim is to stay a while so I can get to know really these places. But I could use them anywhere. If I wanted to go to some wonderful European destination that I can’t afford, like Switzerland, if you’re going to go to Switzerland, do Home Exchange. It’s very expensive otherwise.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah. I did an Airbnb in Switzerland when I was there last year. It actually [00:45:00] wasn’t too bad, the Airbnb price, but yeah.
Annie Sargent: Right. Right.
Lavender and Steel Service
Annie Sargent: Melanie, before we end, we need to mention you have a service that has to do with France, yes? Tell me a little bit about that.
Melanie Dixon: Yes. So I have a travel business that I started last year. It’s called Lavender & Steel, and it really focuses on custom itineraries to France.
So if, you know, people are going to France, maybe it’s the first time, maybe it’s the fifth time, whatever, they really want a very personalized, unique experience, not just like, oh, go to the Louvre and see the Arc de Triomphe. You know, something a little more in-depth and immersed in the culture. So I curate the itineraries for my clients, so it’s really exciting.
Annie Sargent: All right. Do you book anything for them or just…
Melanie Dixon: I do. I do all the booking for them if they want. Some people come to me when they’ve already booked some things, and that’s fine too, but it’s really making the itinerary and then booking anything within the itinerary, and that also includes dining reservation.
It’s full service. It’s definitely a full service, full service company. But a lot of people, like I said, they’ll come to me and they’re like, “Oh, we [00:46:00] already have our hotel,” or “we already have our airline reservations.” That’s not a problem. But I do book those things for people as well.
Annie Sargent: That’s great, because I won’t do that. I’m like, “Sorry, no, you book it yourself.” Because I do itinerary consults as well, but I don’t book anything for people.
Melanie Dixon: Yeah, mine’s definitely 100% full service, white glove service. They just have to tell me what they want.
Annie Sargent: Okay. Well, that’s wonderful. That’s really cool.
Melanie Dixon: Lavender & Steel.
Annie Sargent: Steel like…
Melanie Dixon: Steel, like the metal.
S-T-E-E-L. Yeah, so you can find me… I’m on Instagram, and I have a website. It’s just lavenderandsteel.com.
Annie Sargent: Okay. All spelled out.
Melanie Dixon: Yes, all spelled out. No like symbol for “and”.
That would make it too complicated. I wanted to do that, but I was like, “How am I going to do a website with that ampersand?”
Annie Sargent: Yeah, no, it’s complicated when you want to start a business just finding a name and where you can find the… When you can have the website and the handle for Instagram. Just Instagram or do you do other things as well?
Melanie Dixon: I’m on [00:47:00] Facebook too, and I’m on LinkedIn. But my website is the main source of information. People can find me there.
Annie Sargent: Wonderful.
Wrap Up and Goodbye
Annie Sargent: Thank you so much, Melanie, for talking to me, and best wishes for your travels to France.
Melanie Dixon: Oh, thank you. It was great talking, great chatting. Thank you so much.
Annie Sargent: All right. Au revoir.
Melanie Dixon: Au revoir.
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 so. You can see them at patreon.com/joinus. And a special shout-out this week to my new Join Us in France champions, Sonja, Jessica Kagele, and Jana Reidy.
Would you join them too? You can do it for as little as three dollars a month, but if you can afford it, I would love to have you pledge more so you have access to more of the rewards.
So go to patreon.com/joinus.
[00:48:00] And to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/elysart.
Updates and Tour Reviews
Annie Sargent: This week I published an update on important changes happening at the Louvre Museum for patrons and the dates for our upcoming Zoom with patrons. Always something I look forward to.
I also sent out an email asking folks to review my VoiceMap tours on TripAdvisor, because TripAdvisor is like anywhere else, it’s the popular tours with lots of reviews that get shown, and mine were not doing well in that department. It seems getting reviews is an art that I need to master.
But thankfully, I have lots of faithful listeners who have walked my VoiceMap tours, and on TripAdvisor you can review a tour no matter where you bought it.
Many of you were really helpful and submitted reviews, but if you’d like a chance to do that as well, email me [00:49:00] annie@joinusinfrance.com, and I’ll send you all the links you need because they’re way too long to say on the podcast.
Why France Goes Electric
Annie Sargent: Let’s talk about the electrification of France. You know, my husband and I have been electrifying our lives since 2005, the year we moved, or in my case, moved back to France.
We started early. Heat pumps installed in our apartment in Spain and in our house in France. That was eighteen years ago. The same units are still heating and cooling as efficiently as the day they were put in, not a single replacement.
When I needed a new car in 2023, I went full EV.
My husband drives a small hybrid, and will switch to electric when his car needs replacement. I have not regretted the EV for one second in the three and a half years I’ve had it.
Nuclear Power Context
Annie Sargent: Here’s the thing people outside of France don’t always understand. France has no oil and [00:50:00] no gas of its own.
Charles de Gaulle made a strategic decision decades ago to invest heavily in nuclear power. The level of commitment has varied over the years. There was a real dip in investment in nuclear during the 2010s. But today, roughly 70% of France’s electricity comes from nuclear generation.
The country has eighteen nuclear power plants with fifty-seven active reactors.
Inside a Nuclear Plant
Annie Sargent: I recently visited one of them, the Golfech plant, and I was completely blown away. No photos allowed, security is very tight, so I can’t show you anything. But standing within arm’s reach of the most powerful electric generator I’ve ever seen in my life left a mark.
It’s already shown up in a couple of my dreams. Make of that what you will.
France Electrification Plan
Annie Sargent: All of this is context for why the announcement of French Prime [00:51:00] Minister Sébastien Lecornu made on 10th April matters so much to me personally. Lecornu laid out a sweeping electrification plan for France, and I’ll just give you the highlights.
The government is nearly doubling its annual support for electrification from 5.5 billion to 10 billion euros per year. Lecornu was clear that this isn’t new money, it’s a reallocation of existing public funds. His framing was direct, “As long as we depend on oil and gas, we will keep paying for other people’s wars.”
He’s not wrong.
Right now, sixty percent of France’s energy consumption overall still comes from fossil fuels. That’s the gap this plan is trying to close.
Heating Shift to Heat Pumps
Annie Sargent: Starting at the end of 2026, new construction will no longer be allowed to install gas boilers.
[00:52:00] The ban on gas heating already exists for new individual homes, but this extends it to apartment buildings and commercial properties.
All public subsidies for individuals will be redirected towards heat pumps to replace gas and oil boilers. The target is one million heat pumps installation by year 2030, which means we’ll have cooling in most homes, which will be so nice.
Two million social housing units will come off gas by 2050. A hundred pilot territories will be selected to commit to a gas-free trajectory by twenty-thirty, with full support to get there.
EV Push and Truck Electrification
Annie Sargent: On the transport side, the social leasing program, affordable monthly payments on electric vehicles, is coming back in June with at least fifty thousand additional EVs.
Another fifty thousand subsidized EV are [00:53:00] earmarked for middle class high-mileage drivers, home care workers, nurses, tradespeople, civil servants. The goal is two out of every three new cars sold in France being electric by 2030, with domestic production of four hundred thousand EVs per year by 2027, and a million by 2030.
For businesses, especially small ones, there will be dedicated programs including support of up to a hundred thousand euros per vehicle for heavy trucks. Everything we touch in our lives has come to us on a truck. These trucks need to go electric, and it works wonderful. The technology is here, we just need to use it.
Renault EVs Worth Wanting
Annie Sargent: On that note as well, Renault is hitting it out of the park right now. The new Renault 5 is absolutely gorgeous. They took an iconic design from the 1970s [00:54:00] and brought it into the electric age, and it really works.
The Renault Twingo EV is equally charming. Makes me almost want to drive a Twingo, even though I’ve driven Twingos for a few years.
Didn’t… No, the car didn’t… It’s not my favorite. Bit small for me. But it is charming, it is small and practical, and exactly what you need for French city driving. These are cars that people actually want to own, not just cars people buy because they feel like they should, you know.
Like, “Oh, I should go EV.” No, no, these are exciting cars. The Renault 4 is also back as an EV, but honestly, it’s not generating as the same excitement. I think it comes down to looks, it’s not just as cute. It’s not as cute as the Renault 5 or the Twingo, and when you’re asking people to make a significant purchase, design matters more than manufacturers sometimes want to admit.
Electrify Work and Home
Annie Sargent: Lecornu also [00:55:00] mentioned that electrifying professional equipment, bakery ovens, restaurant kitchens, charcuterie, rotisserie, fishing equipment, farm machinery, and energy-intensive industrial sites.
To me, this is a no-brainer. Electrification is cheaper in the long run and dramatically cleaner. What I’m trying to say is consider going electric next time you need to replace a major appliance in your home.
Perhaps it’s a cooktop or a barbecue or a water heater. The electric versions are all superior to the gas ones, longer lasting and cheaper to run in the long run.
And what I appreciate really here is a politician willing to think long term and take a real stand, even if it rubs people the wrong way.
Looking at the long term in politics is rarer than it should be.
Closing Thanks and Next Episode
Annie Sargent: My thanks to podcast editors Anne and Christian Cotovan, who [00:56:00] produced the transcripts. Next week on the podcast, an episode I’ve titled A Solo Trip to the Southwest of France with Sally Schokman, a charming lady from Australia with a lot of great recommendations.
Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together, and hopefully without my voice that has a cold. Au revoir.
Copyright
Annie Sargent: The join us in France Travel Podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent and copyright 2026 by Addicted to France. It is released under a Creative Comments, attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.[00:57:00][00:58:00]
Subscribe to the Podcast
Apple YouTube Spotify RSSSupport the Show
Tip Your Guides Extras Patreon Audio ToursRead more about this transcript
Episode PageCategories: France How To, Paris