The Cotswolds Were Heavenly

We spent a month in the Cotswolds and it was incredible. Perhaps the best England vacation we have ever had. We have never traveled to England in summer before (I don’t know why - it is a great time to go there!) and we experienced a side of England we had never seen - a warm and sunny side. We walked/hiked nearly every day, starting out the month doing shorter 2 - 3 hour walks and working up to 5 - 6 hour walks.

We had some good visits with friends. We explored villages, visited churches, saw more Norman doorways than I ever thought existed. Revisited favorite villages.

Our first cottage was near Burford, which is a great town that we had stayed near before. Our second cottage was near Stow-on-the-Wold, which we had not spent much time in. Stow is a great town - and the hiking in this area is fantastic. There are two good farm shops in the area - Daylesford Organice Farm near Adelstrop and Cotswolds Farm Shop just west of Stow. And Greedys, a fish and chip shop in Stow, has the best chips! We enjoyed going into Stow for groceries, the newspaper, etc. The Tesco on the edge of Stow is open until midnight (except Sunday when it closes earlier) which is amazingly convenient. Plus they sell those “Gu” and “Fru” desserts that we usually only find at Waitrose (thank you Jonathan for introducing us to them!).

The cottages we had were not perfect. The kitchen in the first one was not good, but was great in the second one (we cook most of our meals). But the second cottage had a damp doggy smell in the living room that made it not be a room you wanted to hang out in. Luckily the weather was fantastic and we sat out in the garden that was right on the River Windrush. The hikes were good from the Burford cottage but even better from the Naunton cottage - the Wardens Way passed by our cottage and several other long distance trails went nearby. We could just pick up our Ordnance Survey map and head out straight from the cottage and go walking for hours.

We revisited Winchcombe where we spent a month in 2004. Sue who runs The Old Tea Room remembered us when we dropped in a couple of times for breakfast or for an after-hike tea and cake.

The whole month was fantastic. I took hundreds of photos and kept notes so I can update Cotswolder. We even met owners of two other vacation rentals in the area, plus Tim Harrison who does car tours (Tour the Cotswolds). More about all that in more detail later. I did half the driving and now consider myself a pretty good England driver (but still nervous driving through Stroud where the streets are fast and there are too many parked cars taking up my lane!).

And Switzerland is Wonderful

We flew from Heathrow to Geneva, picked up a rental car, and drove about 20 minutes to Nyon, an historic town on Lake Geneva (Roman ruins). My friend Wendy had recommended this as a good place for one night and she was right. We had a hotel room looking right onto the lake and the French Alps on the other side. It was a busy Friday night and dinner took about three times as long as it should have, but everything else was great. In the morning we found a great food market going on and stocked up on local, organic vegetables.

Then we drove to our chalet apartment in the Valais. We have stayed nearby a few times, but have never been to Nendaz. The drive up was exciting with a good road winding up the hill at what seemed to be a 45 degree slope with a sheer dropoff on the side. By the time we reached the Interhome office in Nendaz I was pretty freaked because the whole town seems to be perched on a steep slope way up above the Rhone Valley. But you get used to it pretty quick.

Nendaz is a wonderful town with lots of shops and restaurants. Everyone is very friendly! They speak French here which is good because Steve speaks French well (I think he does, but he will say that he doesn’t). There is one gondola in town taking you up to a higher level hiking area, and several others in nearby villages. There are a lot of trails right from town.

And then there are the Bisses (read more on the Nendaz site). These are ancient man-made waterways, similar to our acequias in New Mexico, that bring water from high up in the Alps to the farm lands below. Many of them still have water in them and there are a series of trails where you walk along the Bisses. We did a long hike on two Bisses on Sunday and there were a lot of people out walking. The hikes are mostly through forest and are good for hot, sunny days. Some have great views. Sort of like walking beside small canals, but without the boats. (I relate everything to traveling in England.)

Our chalet apartment is fantastic. Thank you Ivona and Interhome for recommending that we try Nendaz and helping me pick out a great rental! We have the top two floors of a new wooden chalet. We have two balconies, both looking north to the Rhone Valley and Sion below, and across to the mountains. We can see some of the same mountains, but from the other side, that we looked at from Leysin two summers ago. The apartment is beautifully furnished, very comfortable, spotlessly clean and the kitchen is great. It is a bit of a narrow and steep road to get to it, but you can’t have everything.

I think we wore ourselves out a bit in England because we went hiking nearly every day, not wanting to waste the good weather. The good weather is continuing here, but we took a few days away from hiking this week and yesterday had a day where we just hung out and looked at our views or read - and watched the Michael Jackson memorial on Swiss TV - they talked over everything in French :).

I am also spending a bit of time trying to figure out where to spend our last two weeks in July before we head home. I am still considering a last week in England, but probably we will pick two places in Switzerland and have a week in each. Current candidates are Grindelwald and Champex. I think we will drive to Champex tomorrow (just an hour away) and maybe Verbier to see if the hiking looks good. Then it will be back to hiking in Nendaz - still a lot to do here.

The short version - fantastic trip, very relaxed, everything great! If I was not so lazy, I would attach my hard drive and upload a photo - but I am too lazy.

Le Potager du Marais in Paris

We spent a week in Paris at the end of May. I am a vegetarian (but not vegan), Steve eats fish (but not much dairy). We have trouble finding food that we can eat in “normal” restaurants in France but thankfully there are many vegetarian or vegetarian-friendly restaurants.

Here is my list of restaurants, sorted by arrondissement (neighborhood). I found these restaurants from a variety of resources which are listed at the bottom of the article. We did not get to many of them (must return to Paris, more research needed!), but I included my notes on the ones we visited.

Slow Europe Article - Vegetarian Restaurants in Paris

My favorite restaurant was Les Cinq Saveurs d’Anada (in the 5th), followed closely by Le Potager du Marais (in the 3rd). And I loved Maoz for a quick lunch or dinner.

This article is formatted so that you can easily print out the list. Just click print and the page prints without images and sidebars. (All Slow Europe pages are set up for easy printing.)

This is a ten week trip, arriving and departing from England - a week in Paris, June in the Cotswolds, July in Switzerland.

Pre-Vacation and the Flight

Sun on the 17th century floor of our Paris apartment

Because of a great British Airways sale (you can only purchase tickets from one of their hubs) we were flying out of Phoenix, so we started our vacation with a pre-vacation. We rented a car in Santa Fe and drove to Sedona, spent the night, then drove to Phoenix airport for our flight.

We love Sedona and this time we saw a rainy and overcast Sedona, which was delightful. We stayed at the Amara Resort (have stayed there several times) and this time had a riverside room. Had a lovely evening and next morning in Sedona before leaving around 2pm for Phoenix.

British Airways flight was wonderful - we were in First! We were in First on the last trip because they offered a paid upgrade on checkin and we jumped at the chance (it is not easy to get into First on BA). This time I bought Club World sale tickets and upgraded them one way. So we flew to England as if flying in our living room. We both slept well.

Part 1 - Arrival in Windsor

Windsor Castle and St George's Chapel from our hotel balcony

We spent our first three nights in Windsor, only 20 minutes from Heathrow (used a car service). We stayed at the Harte and Garter on the High Street, looking at the Castle. We were there for a Bank Holiday weekend and Windsor was packed. Many visitors liked to stand outside the castle and scream late into the night. Why? No idea. But I did like standing on our balcony and seeing the church where Henry VIII is buried.

Windsor was a good arrival town - lots of restaurants and cafes, great walks along the River Thames and our friend Wendy and Richard live nearby. We had two wonderful days with them, including one day with Richard taking us on a tour of the towns along the Thames. The weather was hot and sunny. We had a picnic of Waitrose sandwiches sitting on a bench beside the Thames. Went for some lovely walks and visited a National Trust garden.

Part 2 - A Week in Paris

View from our Paris apartment over the Cluny Roman ruins

Next we took the train to Paris! We used a car service to take us from Windsor to St Pancras station in London (because it was not much more expensive than the train tickets). Windsor Cabs was great at giving us an airport pickup with a fragrance-free car but failed miserably at this one and we rode in a scented cab. I assumed they had told the driver of my request and we were smelling leftover air freshener but towards the end of the ride we saw an air freshener in the front. Argh!! Should have taken the train.

The Eurostar from London to Paris was fast (under 2 1/2 hours) and easy. It was not that comfortable - sort of like flying Southwest but at a lower altitude. Arrived in Paris, got a taxi to our apartment, met the representative from the agency at the apartment and were checked in. The apartment was fabulous (I reviewed it on Slow Europe). The only problem was that the bedding was scented. They had washed everything for us in unscented laundry soap but they usually use a soap with a strong scent, so the scent was in the pillows and comfortor. I rewashed the sheets about four times and then it was mostly okay.

We were in the heart of the Latin Quarter, a block from a Metro stop, with a great cafe beside our entrance, but were up on the fifth floor, above the noise (except some jack hammering from street work on a couple of days). The apartment was spacious and two walls were lined with windows. From some we look down on the Medieval Cluny Museum - looked right at some of the gargoyles. From others we looked north and could see the top of Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur sitting on its hill. We had our binoculars and could see the people sitting on the steps.

We loved being in Paris (our last visit was 21 years ago) but it did not capture our hearts the way it does for many people. It was cool for half the the week, hot and sunny for the other half. We spent most of our time walking around the city. We went to only one museum (the Cluny since it was next door) and we spent most of our time in the 5th or in the Marais. It was a very easy city to deal with. People were friendly, the Metro was easy to use, there are lots of vegetarian restaurants. We ate in restaurants, but cooked several meals at “home”.  We spent one evening with Dana who I know through SlowTrav and Twitter. We spent a day with friends from Germany who we have not seen in the past few years, but have known for 20 years. I will write more about our time in Paris later.

Part 3 - June in the Cotswolds

Walk near Eastleach Turville in the Cotswolds

After our eight nights we took the Eurostar back to London, got a cab from St Pancras to Paddington, then took the train to Oxford. Took a taxi from the Oxford train station to the Europcar office (1/2 mile away) and got our rental car. Drove to our first cottage in Fulbrook, just outside of Burford.

We were both thrilled to be out of the big city and back in the English countryside. We have been in this cottage for over a week now and on Friday we move to another cottage about 30 minutes away for the next two weeks. The weather has been heavenly - most days sunny and warm and some even hot! A few cold days (when we realize we had no idea how to heat this cottage).

We have spent a lot of time in the Cotswolds, but usually in May. June is a whole different story (either that or we have just been lucky with the weather). It is warm and sunny and it is light until nearly 10pm. These long days explains why I have not been blogging or getting much work done.

I love the Cotswolds! Wendy and Richard stayed in a cottage nearby for our first weekend here. We had a fabulous pub lunch with them at The Swan in Swinbrook (near Burford). The next day we all went to Snowshill Manor and then drove around a few towns, followed by a lovely dinner in Broadway.

We have done some exploring around and some fabulous walks. I started driving in England on our last trip (January - February 2008) and easily picked it up again on this trip. Now we share the driving! I feel like we are really staring to know the Cotswolds. Burford is a fabulous town and this is a great location. There is only one good hike that we can do from our doorstep, but others are a short drive away.

Summing Up

Buddy sleeping on our bed in Santa Fe

So that brings us to where we are now - sitting in a cottage with a rose covered doorway on a quiet lane in a small village near a lovely market town. If I were to stand, the ceiling would be only six inches above my head. This is an old cottage and people really were shorter a few hundred years ago. I have learned to duck.

On vacation everything takes longer - grocery shopping, cooking meals, working on the computer - because it is not what you are used to. Laundry always takes longer. So the days are fuller just with day to day stuff. Then there are all the things to do and see and I never want to miss out on things by spending time organizing my journal or blog or photos. Usually I manage to post to my blog, but I think the long days - or short evenings - are influencing that.

We only planned and booked the first six weeks of this trip. The day before we left I booked an apartment in Switzerland for the first two weeks of July (in Nendaz, in the Valais). From here I booked a flight from Heathrow to Geneva and a hotel for one night in Nyon, near the airport. That reminds me - I have to book our rental car!

In summary - having a great time, England in June is fabulous - why didn’t we think of this before?, I miss my comfortable bed, and I really miss Buddy.

On Thursday evening we met Dana (@danamac) who I know from the SlowTrav community and from Twitter. Dana is the person who got me to join Twitter. Via Twitter we realized we were both going to be in Paris at the same time, so we arranged to have dinner one evening. Dana is a foodie and Steve and I are pretty much anti-foodies, so it was hard to agree on a restaurant, but we finally picked Pulcinella, a new Italian restaurant in Montmartre (the 18th).

We met at our apartment, talked for an hour, then took the Metro to the restaurant. As we were sitting down the two women and the next table bonjoured us. Then one of them asked if we spoke English, if we were American, if I was on Twitter. We were sitting beside @louloufrance who I had just started following a few weeks before!!! She recognized me from my Twitter photo (hers is a group of figs, so I did not recognize her) and she sort of knew me from the SlowTrav community.

LouLouFrance (not her real name!) is an American who lives in the south of France. She knows everything about cheese and desserts too I think. Her blog is: Chez LouLou.

Reading her blog I find out she knows David Lebovitz whose book “The Sweet Life in Paris” I downloaded to my Kindle and read in our first few days here (great book with lots of good information for Paris, plus recipes). Wow!!

Isn’t that an amazing coincidence? That we were at the same restaurant. That I was seated beside her (and facing her). That she recognized me from Twitter. I will be talking about this for years. In all the time that I ran the SlowTrav community, only once has someone ever recognized me on the street - and it was on my street in Santa Fe and was back in the very early days. I always heard about other community members running into people in Italy, but it never happened to me (well, it did happen in Savannah, but there were 100 of us there for that party and it is a small town).

And the Tweeter on the other side of me at that dinner, Dana, is no travel slouch either. She runs a great travel blog, The Traveling McMahans (she was in Morocco for a week before coming to Paris) and writes for Food Connect!

It was a lovely evening - but I can’t even spare the time to upload a photo of our amazing apartment view (we look over the Cluny rooftops to Notre Dame and Sacre Cour) because we want to do an early evening stroll down Boulevard St Germaine!! Hey, we are in Paris!! (Leaving for the Cotswolds on Wednesday.)

We rented a lovely apartment in the 5th (in the Latin Quarter near the Sorbonne). I love to stay in vacation rentals in historic buildings and this one looks like it will be interesting. It is on the 5th floor of a 17th century building with views of Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur. When I was using Google Maps Street View to “walk” my new neighborhood, I saw that there is a cafe beside the entrance to the building. How perfect is that?

Of course, I do have a bit of nervousness about being in a big city (we tend towards small towns and countryside these days) and am anticipating a breathtakingly tiny elevator to take us up to that 5th floor - we may be hoofing it instead. I also figure everyone in Paris wears perfume (we are allergic to the chemicals in fragrances), but we will be able to escape up to our 5th floor nest to breathe in some clean air - won’t we?

I am making my restaurant list for Paris. I am looking for good vegetarian/vegan/macrobiotic restaurants. So far it is looking great. I found three macrobiotic restaurants within a few blocks of our apartment. If anyone has any suggestions, please post them. Also if you have anything to suggest that we should do in Paris, please post.

Resources for Vegetarian Restaurants in Paris

• Happy Cow - France - Vegetarian restaurants and natural food stores by city in France.
• Happy Cow - Paris - Vegetarian restaurants and natural food stores in Paris.
• ParisVegetarian - Reviews of vegetarian and vegetarian-friendly restaurants.
• VeganParis - Descriptions and reviews of vegan restaurants, including an up to date list of vegetarian/vegan/macrobiotic restaurants.
• Veggie Places - Paris - List of vegetarian restaurants and a google map showing locations.
• Venere Travel Blog - How to Eat Organic in Paris by Barbara Diggs. Not all organic restaurants are vegetarian, but they are likely to have vegetarian options.

The water at Pelosa on Sardinia

On any map of the Mediterranean, the Italian island of Sardinia is easy to spot being shaped like a foot and lying between Corsica and Sicily.

Visitors are often surprised at the size of Sardinia - it is pretty much the size of Wales or West Virginia (but has the advantage of 1800km of mostly unspoilt coastline).

Peter Ryder, who lives on Sardinia, introduces us to his corner of the island, near the town of Alghero in the north west.

Slow Europe article - A Slow Week in Alghero and North West Sardinia

Peter runs the Italy 360° Travel Guide websites with travel information, photos and 360° photo views for popular Italian travel destinations.

• 360tuscany.net: Popular Tuscany destinations (Pisa, Florence, Lucca, Siena, Volterra, San Gimignano and more).
• 360rome.net: Historic center of Rome (Forum, Colosseum, St Peters, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, etc.).
• 360sardinia.net: Sardinia with views of many spots on the island.
• 360alghero.net: Alghero and north west Sardinia.
• 360olbia.net: Olbia and north east Sardinia.
• 360amalfi.net: Towns on the Amalfi Coast and places nearby (Amalfi, Positano, Ravello, Capri, Pompeii and more).
• 360sorrento.net: Slideshows of the popular areas in and near Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast.

Slow Europe Article - Eurostar from London to Paris

We will be taking a train from Windsor to London Paddington, then a taxi or the Underground to St Pancras, and then the Eurostar to Paris. On return we go back to London, then take a train to Oxford to pick up our rental car for our month in the Cotswolds.

I found some great resources on the web for information about the Eurostar. I bought our Eurostar tickets online and was able to print them out at home. Once we have actually done the train ride, I will update the page with any new information.

Lanzarote Guidebook

The Canary Islands, located around eighty miles off the coast of West Africa close to the Tropic of Capricorn, are a Spanish owned volcanic archipelago of seven islands that was once thought to be the remnants of the mythical lost city of Atlantis.

The Canaries are essentially the European Caribbean, boasting year round sunshine and daytime temperatures that range from 70 to 79 degrees Fahrenheit (20 to 26 degrees Celsius), making them a hugely popular holiday destination, especially with British, Irish and German tourists.

Nick Ball runs the Lanzarote Guidebook  website with travel information and accommodations bookings, including a good selection of vacation rentals. He wrote an introduction to Lanzarote for Slow Europe.

Article on Slow Europe - Holidays on the Island of Fire - Lanzarote on the Canary Islands, Spain

That water looks perfect for swimming!

I made a list of Europe vacation rentals owners, agency owners and rent-by-owner and home exchange websites who are on Twitter.

Article on Slow Europe - Follow European Vacation Rental Owners on Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging service where you post and read “tweets” of 140 characters or less. Learn more about vacation rentals in Europe by following owners and agencies on Twitter. They tweet about their vacation rentals and their local areas. It is a great way to get to know someone before booking with them.

Follow us on Twitter for European vacation rental news: @SlowEurope. Follow me if you run a vacation rental in Europe and are not listed in my article.

I will keep this article up-to-date, adding new tweeters and removing those who don’t tweet or only do marketing tweets.

Upper Slaughter in the Cotswolds

Wendy Ashworth and her husband Richard spent a weekend at Lords of the Manor, a historic luxury hotel in Upper Slaughter, last December. She wrote a detailed review of the hotel for my Cotswolder website.

Article on Cotswolder - Lords of the Manor in Upper Slaughter

When we see Wendy and Richard in June, during our month in the Cotswolds, we are going to have afternoon tea together at the Lords of the Manor.

Lower Slaughter, easily accessed from the main road to Stow-on-the-Wold, is the more popular of this pair of Villages. You can walk along the River Windrush from Lower to Upper - it is only a mile - but Upper Slaughter remains the less visited and more sleepy of the two.

Read more about Stow-on-the-Wold and the nearby villages on Cotswolder.

I use Google Reader to organize my feeds. Previously I “hand crafted” my list of favorite blogs on Slow Europe, but today figured out how to generate my blogroll from Google Reader (explained below if you want to do it).

• Here it is - my blog roll: Slow Europe - Travel Blogs

I also list my favorite travel websites and forums (communities), but am still working on that list: Slow Europe - Travel Websites & Forums

If you have any favorite blogs or websites that I have not included, post here and tell me about them.

* Organize your feeds into folders in Google Reader. Click the “Manage Subscriptions” link at the bottom of the left navigation column. Select the “Folders and Tags” tab. Change the folders that you want to publish to “public”. For each folder, click the “add a blogroll to your site” link. A window pops up, select your color scheme, change the title, then copy the javascript onto your webpage. Now when you add or delete blog feeds in Google Reader, they change on your webpage, so you can manage your website blogroll from Google Reader.

Lately I have been interested in the idea of home exchanges, which in many ways are similar to staying in vacation rentals when you travel. You are staying in a home, not a hotel, and are based in a neighborhood where you experience a place as a local does. With vacation rentals you pay by the week, with a home exchange you trade homes - vacation rental barter!

To coincide with this weeks “Slow Down London” festival, Lois invited me to write two posts for her Home Exchange Travel blog. Here they are:

• April 23, 2009. ‘Slow Down London’: Take Time to Smell the Roses
• April 26, 2009. When You Can’t Do a Home Exchange, Consider a Vacation Rental

Follow Lois on Twitter: HomeExchangeUK

Laura Byrne Paquet, who writes the wonderful blog Facing the Street, is working on an article about home exchanges for Slow Europe. She is reviewing the popular home exchange websites and talking to people who have done home exchanges. I will announce it on the blog when we have it published.

Ploughman’s Lunch, pub in England

Today is Earth Day. One way to lessen your load on the earth is to be a vegetarian, or to cut down on your consumption of meat. I have been a vegetarian for over 25 years. I don’t eat the best possible diet - ice cream and chocolate have been known to pass my lips and I have coffee every morning - but I eat a diet based on vegetables and grains and try for organic and locally grown when possible.

I am also a traveler. Sometimes the two - vegetarian and traveler - are difficult to be together. Twenty years ago, when we discovered vacation rentals in Europe, my travel life changed. Now I could go where I wanted and not have to eat in restaurants all the time. I travel with a small stainless steel pot with a tight lid for cooking brown rice, some high quality sea salt and my good vegetable knife so I can easily create a vegetarian meal in my “home away from home”.

We usually eat some meals out but we like to do most of our own cooking. This means that we don’t end up immersing ourselves in the local cuisine, but to me local cuisine is usually different ways of cooking dead pigs, so I don’t feel that I am missing much. (And to complete the picture - we don’t drink much wine either.)

In most European countries you can find vegetarian items on menus. Travel is easier for the lacto-vegetarian (who eats dairy products like butter, cheese and eggs) and more difficult for the vegan (no dairy). Many people who do not understand vegetarians expect us to eat salad at every meal. Now I like a salad, but in the middle of winter after a long hike, it is not a substantial food for me. I like pasta, cooked grains, bread and vegetables.

Vegetarian Expectations in Different European Countries

• England is the best country for traveling vegetarians. There are many vegetarians in England and if the server at the restaurant is not one, most likely they know one, so you are not treated like an idiot. They frequently ask if you are vegan. You will find vegetarian options in pubs and tea rooms, and most good restaurants have a few vegetarian options. The Indian restaurants throughout England are a good option.
• Switzerland is also good. Every restaurant offers a “gemuse teller” (vegetable plate) and there are usually other things to choose from, usually involving cheese. Their bread is such good quality that it is a meal in itself.
• Italy is good because of the way their menus are organized. You usually find vegetarian pastas and contorni(vegetable side dishes). Only once in Italy did they refuse to seat us when we told them I was a vegetarian. In some seaside places every dish has seafood, but you can ask for spaghetti with tomato sauce. In Tuscany I find a big selection, but in most other regions I end up eating the same thing for every meal (in Liguria  I eat spaghetti with pesto, in Umbria spaghetti with truffles - good on the first and second nights, boring by the third).
• Franceis not easy but most good sized towns have a vegetarian restaurant. I have had some of the best meals of my life in vegetarian restaurants in France. In other countries vegetarian restaurants can feature undercooked rice and many old hippies, but in France the food is good quality and innovative and even the old hippies are fashionable. In “normal” restaurants I end up eating omelets.
• Germany is difficult. They like their meat and I end up eating salad or just potatoes.

I have not been to Spain in 30 years, but I hear it is difficult for vegetarians. The same with eastern Europe.

Thank You to the Chinese Immigrant Communities

Twenty years ago, when we finished our year of travel in Europe, I wanted to write to China thanking them for their immigrants (or is it emigrants? the people who left). It was the Chinese restaurants across Europe that made it possible for us to eat many days.

I remember a wonderful Chinese restaurant in Vienna where we were staying in a hotel so had no kitchen. We ate there every night for a week. We have eaten in Chinese restaurants in England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy - and Lichtenstein! In the Netherlands we eat in Indonesian restaurants.

You would think with this way of eating we would want to travel in Asia? But we don’t. Our hearts are in Europe but our stomachs are in the far east.

The monk seals beach themselves on the beaches in Poipu and spend the whole day sleeping. They are protected, so as soon as they settle in for a nap, someone puts a rope fence around them so that people cannot get close. Sometimes they take up half the beach! They are fun to watch, but not much happens.

Gourmet kitchen in a Provence vacation rental

Airfares are on sale for this summer. Staying in a vacation rental is less expensive than a hotel and you get more for your money - a whole house or apartment where you can spread out, settle in and live like a local for a week or two. Maybe it is time to think about a week or two in the French countryside?

Walking out to the village cafe in the morning, exploring nearby historic towns and villages, maybe doing a nice countryside walk in the late afternoon before returning to your village to have a glass of wine on your terrace and think about shopping for dinner. Sounds pretty darned nice to me.

Read Marta’s notes about vacation rentals in France - where to rent, how to book, what to expect in a French house. Then look through our recommended vacation rentals in France and start your trip planning. Marta put together a slideshow of photos from her recent rentals in France to give you an idea of the types of places you can rent.

If you are new to vacation rentals in Europe, start by reading our Vacation Rentals Guide - everything you need to know about vacation rentals in Europe.

If you have any questions about trip planning or staying in European vacation rentals, post them in our Questions section.