velotel
01-17-2014, 02:19 AM
From time to time I’ve seen comments in posts regarding the possibility of renting a house in France for a cycling holiday. There’s a site on which you can find exactly that but you need to speak french to understand it. The site is: leboncoin.fr , sort of a craig’s list I suppose though I’m not really familiar with that site. Probably need to speak french to communicate with the house owners too.
Here’s a brief explication on how to use the site and afterwards a few words of warning.
Go to leboncoin.fr . the page opens and you have a map of france divided by regions. They’re also listed by name to the right. Click on the region you’re interested in. For example click on Rhône-Alpes. New page opens where you can now narrow down the area you’re interested in. The box in which Rhône-Alpes is shown to the right of toutes categories has an arrow. Click on the arrow and you can select the department you want, Savoie, Isère, etc. Or if you know the name of the town or its postal code (ville ou code postal), you can type that in to narrow your search even more.
Now you need to play with toutes categories. Click on the arrow and then click on locations de vacance (vacation rentals). By the way, the line ‘recherche dans le titre uniquement ‘means search only in the title of the announcement if you’ve clicked the box. After that you have a bunch of further choices to narrow down the selection: prix – price; dates - dates; personnes – how many people can the house handle; chambres – rooms, as in how many; piscine is swimming pool, oui is yes, non is no. Click on ‘chercher’ and you’ll get a list of results.
I like leboncoin, use it for finding lots of stuff but it needs to be used with care, just like with craig’s list from what I’ve read. People get ripped off. There have been some amazing stories on holiday rentals though I don’t know if they were generated by announcements on leboncoin or not. Basically people who have lined up a rental after looking at all the pictures of the places on-line, checking out all the info, then sending the money asked in deposit, and finally getting to the ski station or whatever and discovering that the house and address don’t even exist!
About all I can think of to avoid that happening would be to call the tourist office in the nearest town and ask (someone almost always speaks english in the tourist offices) if they know anything about the rental, if they can verify its existence. You could also call the town hall (la mairie) of the nearest town for info but finding someone who speaks english there could be iffy. Calling the gendarmerie (the police effectively) could also be a good idea though again finding someone who speaks english might be iffy and they might not be real enthusiastic to help, at first.
At any rate lots of vacation houses can be found on the site. Personally I don’t know why someone would want to rent a house when it’s not all that much cheaper than a hotel. I mean why go on holiday and then have to do the cooking, cleaning, etc. just like at home. Leave that to someone else is what my wife and I much prefer when on holiday.
Another interesting option, and prices are apparently quite good, are hotel/residences, in french hôtel/résidence. Basically they’re hotels that have been transformed into small apartments so you’re on your own for housekeeping and food. Potential drawback is that they’re pretty much only in town I think.
Apparently a lot of french do the home exchange deal for holidays too but for that I know nothing.
Maybe this info will help. Cheers
Here’s a brief explication on how to use the site and afterwards a few words of warning.
Go to leboncoin.fr . the page opens and you have a map of france divided by regions. They’re also listed by name to the right. Click on the region you’re interested in. For example click on Rhône-Alpes. New page opens where you can now narrow down the area you’re interested in. The box in which Rhône-Alpes is shown to the right of toutes categories has an arrow. Click on the arrow and you can select the department you want, Savoie, Isère, etc. Or if you know the name of the town or its postal code (ville ou code postal), you can type that in to narrow your search even more.
Now you need to play with toutes categories. Click on the arrow and then click on locations de vacance (vacation rentals). By the way, the line ‘recherche dans le titre uniquement ‘means search only in the title of the announcement if you’ve clicked the box. After that you have a bunch of further choices to narrow down the selection: prix – price; dates - dates; personnes – how many people can the house handle; chambres – rooms, as in how many; piscine is swimming pool, oui is yes, non is no. Click on ‘chercher’ and you’ll get a list of results.
I like leboncoin, use it for finding lots of stuff but it needs to be used with care, just like with craig’s list from what I’ve read. People get ripped off. There have been some amazing stories on holiday rentals though I don’t know if they were generated by announcements on leboncoin or not. Basically people who have lined up a rental after looking at all the pictures of the places on-line, checking out all the info, then sending the money asked in deposit, and finally getting to the ski station or whatever and discovering that the house and address don’t even exist!
About all I can think of to avoid that happening would be to call the tourist office in the nearest town and ask (someone almost always speaks english in the tourist offices) if they know anything about the rental, if they can verify its existence. You could also call the town hall (la mairie) of the nearest town for info but finding someone who speaks english there could be iffy. Calling the gendarmerie (the police effectively) could also be a good idea though again finding someone who speaks english might be iffy and they might not be real enthusiastic to help, at first.
At any rate lots of vacation houses can be found on the site. Personally I don’t know why someone would want to rent a house when it’s not all that much cheaper than a hotel. I mean why go on holiday and then have to do the cooking, cleaning, etc. just like at home. Leave that to someone else is what my wife and I much prefer when on holiday.
Another interesting option, and prices are apparently quite good, are hotel/residences, in french hôtel/résidence. Basically they’re hotels that have been transformed into small apartments so you’re on your own for housekeeping and food. Potential drawback is that they’re pretty much only in town I think.
Apparently a lot of french do the home exchange deal for holidays too but for that I know nothing.
Maybe this info will help. Cheers