| The long term trends look poor. There are | | | | were asleep) and didn't want to inflict one on our |
| 500,000 English owned properties in France - | | | | locataires (=renters). |
| that's half a million families that will no longer be | | | | 4) As a holiday is a time to relax we try to make |
| renting holiday cottages in France. | | | | it so. It helps if everything is included in the price, |
| We have to say that it doesn't quite feel like that | | | | so no worries about electricity, gas or wood fuel |
| for us. Every year we seem to manage sufficient | | | | bills. French gite owners (god bless 'em) read the |
| "fullness" to be happy with the outcome. Even this | | | | meter before and after your holiday. |
| year when summer was rained off and we had | | | | 5) If possible we thought each gite or holiday |
| to pay French taxes for the first time. | | | | cottage should have its own garden. Quite |
| As inveterate holiday cottage renters in earlier | | | | unimportant if you're off sightseeing every day, |
| times we decided upon several things when we | | | | but as gardeners we knew we would enjoy |
| started on the venture:- | | | | providing them. |
| 1) A holiday cottage does not have to be big | | | | 6) Finally we decided fairly early on to accept any |
| enough to live in - just big enough to be enjoyable | | | | bookings over three days in length. Changeover |
| for a fortnight. Small really is beautiful. | | | | days are a pain in the neck for the gite owner |
| 2) The things that go wrong or are missing are | | | | (you write off every single Saturday in your life) |
| the things you would notice yourself, so at the | | | | and inconvenient for holidaymakers who want to |
| start we made a list of all things we'd ever | | | | have cheap ferry crossings. The odd wasted |
| wanted in a holiday cottage and provided them all. | | | | days are when our gites have their own |
| Next we decided to live in our gites from time to | | | | mini-holiday |
| time so that we knew their failings. Sometimes | | | | On the whole we may be dinosaurs - throws |
| we have been aghast that people have not | | | | back to the past when low property prices made |
| complained about something or another that | | | | financing all this quite straightforward. |
| we've realized is wrong. | | | | The supply of cottages to rent for holiday in the |
| 3) The holiday cottages had to be sufficiently | | | | UK is tending to decline because "buy to let" |
| comfortable and welcoming to be a place to live in | | | | schemes, and realising the capital value of the |
| - even for a fortnight - rather than just a | | | | cottages is more attractive than the rather labour |
| dormitory. We had stayed in dormitories (too | | | | intensive activity of providing people with holidays. |
| uncomfortable to stay in, other than when we | | | | |