Homes away from home

Edmonton Journal Saturday, March 9, 2002

By Elana Scraba of Edmonton, Alberta

Biggest problems with house exchanges are foreign kitchen gadgets

In October, we bought a can-opener. In July it was a corkscrew. We aren’t short of standard kitchen equipment, but in our summer and autumn homes, some of standard equipment baffled us.

In August, our days started and ended on the south terrace of a rooftop apartment in Nice. Over coffee or wine depending on the hour, we took in the full sweep of the Mediterranean salted with white sails. Cap Ferrat to the east, and Cap d’Antibes to the west framed our view. In the evenings, while we finished dinner, we watched the lights of Antibes blink on, and counted the planes coming into the second busiest airport in France. Most mornings found us on the cooler north terrace, planning our day over coffee and fresh baguette, and looking up the hill into deep green pine and cypress forests or out to the blue sea. At ground level there was an Olympic sized pool for us to enjoy, and a white Renault in the parking lot ready for our use.

In July, we drank our wine and ate our evening meal in tropical greenery on one of the three terraces of our sixth floor, three-bedroom apartment in the suburbs of Vienna. Our flat had hardwood floors, comfortable furniture, good art, music, books, and a rooftop pool. It was three minutes from the tramline---maximum time to the centre of town--twenty minutes. In the underground garage, was a red Audi for us to drive as we wished—northwest up the Danube, southeast along the "route de vin," west into the Vienna Woods, or just down the road to Stammersdorf to the local heurigers (cafés and wine caves in the local vineyards---a Viennese tradition).

We spent all of October in Quebec City staying in a lovely stone home in the countryside fifteen minutes from Vieux Quebec. From our base in Quebec City, we traveled around the province at the most splendid time of year---fall colours blazing, and no tourists.

Did we win the lottery? No. This summer, we exchanged our Edmonton home for two apartments in Europe—one in Vienna and one in Nice. Our exchange in Quebec City was our eighth. We are confirmed home-exchangers

Our first exchange was in 1990 with a couple from California. They came to Edmonton, and with considerable trepidation, we went to their condo on the Oregon coast. We had a wonderful time. The condo was beautiful, the beach empty, the sun warm, the scenery glorious. Our exchangers loved Edmonton. They met the neighbours, traveled everywhere by bus or LRT, made the obligatory trip to the mountains, and generally had as good a time as we did.

Each succeeding exchange has been unique and wonderful. Between our Vienna and Nice exchanges this summer, French friends met our train in Strasbourg, showed us the city, then drove us to their home in the Lorraine. Marcel and Severine Colinmaire became our life-long friends on our second home exchange—our first to France. Two years later, they returned to Canada to join us on a trip to the west coast. Each year our friendship deepens despite the fact that they speak and understand no English and our French is rudimentary.

This summer we relaxed in their charming retirement home, caught up on the lives of our respective families, walked in the nearby hills, drank good wine, ate wonderful food, and laughed and laughed. They took us on a fabulous jaunt into the Alsatian wine country. Each day was planned around a perfect meal in a local restaurant that specialized in the very best regional food. We visited wine caves, walked through exquisite villages, watched Severine buy a year’s supply of wine from her vintner friends, stayed in a B&B that was right in a vineyard. Then we did a little hiking in the Voges. We met their neighbours in the village, hunted escargots in the fields, and learned about village life---a travel experience not possible on a tour or hotel stay.

In Nice, we were welcomed by the parents of the young couple with whom we exchanged homes. They met us at the train, showed us the neighbourhood, had us in for drinks, and came to our place for drinks on our last night. They suggested we visit several places tourists normally don’t know.

We combined their advice with our own research and made number of unique trips. We traveled to perched villages in the olive covered hills that stretch up into Provence behind Nice. We drove east and up into the mountains on the Italian border to the Vallee des Merveilles and the villages of Breil-sur-Roya, La Brigue, St. Dalmas de Tende, and Tende where French and Italian have mingled for centuries.

Mussolini built a huge palace of a railway station in St. Dalmas, a tiny place of no consequence, to make clear his command of the region. The station is long out of use, but remains as a reminder of the region’s history.

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In Quebec City, a friend of our exchangers met us at the airport, showed us around the city, pointed out essential services, and left her phone number should we have questions. A week later, she took us to the National Wildlife preserve at Cap Tourmante to watch the annual migration of the snow geese. On our last night, the next-door neighbours invited us to join them for dinner at a restaurant in Levis so we could look across the St. Laurence at the lights of Quebec. We took the ferry to Levis, and spent a lively and interesting evening discussing---in both official languages--our shared sense of Canada.

Exchanging homes is a superb way to travel off or on the beaten path. It is affordable, personal, interesting, and enriching. On a home exchange, you shop at the local markets, eat in the local restaurants, drive the back roads, meet "real" people, get asked out for meals, have a chance to practice a language. You can do as much or as little of your own cooking as you wish, so you don’t get sick. You set your own schedule, and maintain a routine that suits your lifestyle. And you don’t have to pack your bags every couple of days.

Our biggest problems in our homes away from home have been with can openers we can’t operate, the apparent absence of an electric teakettle, or with European washing machines that have impenetrable operating instructions. For help, we have relied successfully on friendly neighbours. In our home, the greatest problem was for English couple who had to purchase a fan one unseasonably hot summer.

By the time all of the exchange details are worked out, you have a clear sense of the sort of people your exchangers are, and in the case of multiple exchanges will probably have been in touch with those who are preceding or following you.

One summer in England, we went out for a drive the afternoon of our last day at our house near the Welsh border. When we arrived "home" there where was a ladder propped up to the second storey bedroom window. In terror, we concluded that we had arrived in the midst of a break-in. We were right. There had been a "break-in"---the couple from Scarbourgh who were (we thought) scheduled to arrive the following day had arrived according to the schedule they had. They pulled up in a rental car shortly after we left. When they discovered the car belonging to the house gone, they feared it had been stolen. Worse, the hidden key was not in the place our host said it would be. They too feared a disaster.

Resourcefully, they found the extension ladder in the back shed. They set it up, and with considerable difficulty, Paul crawled through the open second floor bedroom window. He let Margaret, his wife, in the front door. Once they saw our semi-packed luggage, they realized the situation and were having a drink in the back garden when we drove up. The four of us had a lovely time, sharing dinner and comparing notes on miscommunications with our host, and on rose gardens---Paul and Margaret turned out to be renowned rose specialists in England to judge competitions. We spent that night in the guest room and left in the morning for our second English exchange having made new Canadian friends.

For an annual fee you list your home with a home exchange organization. Our organization charges $140.00 for catalogue and website listings, plus $35.00 for photos. You list the, features of your home and area, your preferred travel destination(s), the dates you can travel, and any specific requirements and terms (for example : exchange cars, no smoking, no pets, children, etc.). Then you look for a match : compatible people who live in the place(s) you want to visit, and want to visit your part of the country at the time you are free to travel.

Our home exchange organization posts each listing along with photos on a secure website. As well, it prints three catalogues---January, March, and May : showing all of the listings in colour. Receiving the winter home-exchange catalogue in the depths of darkest December is as exciting as was the arrival of the Eaton’s Christmas catalogue when we were children.

Once your listing is posted, you are on your own. You can search the website for matches, wait until someone contacts you, search the catalogue for a match, or do all three.

Most people start the process by sending a brief "form" letter or e-mail to several members in the area(s) where they hope to travel. The protocol at this point is simple: check the enquirer’s listing for details, determine if a match is feasible, and reply quickly affirmative or negative.

The website makes communication exceptionally simple. The catalogue is a useful support. Our organization’s website provides excellent information and advice about wording listings, communicating, negotiating and finalizing an exchange agreement.

Many Europeans plan for a series of Canadian exchanges. They try to maximize the places they see. It is quite common for Europeans planning a trip to Western Canada to start at the west coast then arrange an exchange in Edmonton or Calgary so they can see the Rockies and some of the prairie as well. In 1998, we exchanged with an English couple who started on Vancouver Island, went next to Vancouver, came to Edmonton, then flew to Toronto. Multiple exchanges have worked well for us—two to four weeks in one locale, then a few weeks in a second.

Who Does Home Exchanges?

We have exchanged with couples in their early thirties, with retired people, and with young families. A quick read of the catalogue will show that exchangers tend to have professional occupations, but beyond that, they span a complete range of ages and family configurations—single, young, middle aged, married, couples travelling together, families with young children, families with teenagers, retired people.

What about security, insurance valuables?
Isn’t this dangerous?

These are the most frequently asked questions. We have had no problems with security and safety of valuables. Insurance companies prefer there be someone responsible in your home while you are on an extended vacation. For car swaps of fewer than six months, insurers require only that the persons driving your car have valid drivers’ licenses and proof of insurance.

The exchange organization provides formal agreements for car exchanges, and the overall exchange. For a small fee, you can also purchase exchange cancellation insurance.

To ease concerns about safety and security, many exchangers arrange to meet each other at one end of an exchange or the other. On this last exchange, our Quebec exchangers picked us up at the airport on our return. We spent a delightful evening with them, and drove them to the airport in the morning. This summer, we did not meet the families with whom we exchanged, but we did meet their neighbours (Vienna) and extended family (Nice).

Some people can’t imagine strangers using their dishes and eating at their table. If you feel that way, then exchanging is not for you. However, we have found that our exchangers have taken exceptional care of our things. We have had one coffee mug broken in all this time!

A good exchange is based on trust---your exchange partners have trusted to you the same things you have trusted to them. Mutual respect prevails.

We clear closet and drawer space for our exchangers, and leave information about anything we would prefer they not use---the best crystal and china. We don’t lock up such things, but some people do.

We leave phone numbers of neighbours who can be called, and we make sure our neighbours know who will be staying in our house. We understand from our neighbours and exchangers we have missed out on some super backyard neighbourhood get-togethers. We have compiled an information booklet that opens with a complete list of emergency phone numbers—doctors, dentists, insurance contacts, the plumber, etc. We also arrange for neighbourhood teens to do pet and yard car when our exchangers are out of town.

We are registered with Homelink International, an organization that has links to twenty other countries in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia and New Zealand.

Their website is at www.homelink.ca
or you can contact the Canadian office at :
1707 Platt Crescent,
North Vancouver, B.C. V7J 1X9
Phone 604-987-3262 [Fax # on request]
Email: www.homelink.ca/InfoEmail.html

A search of the web will reveal several other travel exchange organizations.