Exchanging For A Honeymoon

No, I am not going on a honeymoon . . . . mine was 36 years ago!  But my son Van, and his future wife, Megan, who are getting married in two months were talking about honeymoon locations last year when I thought about the possibilities of finding a home exchange for them.  They jumped at the idea and proceeded to go online and check out all of the amazing locations available to them around the world on Homeexchange.com.  Over 40,000 listing in 147 countries.  Now that's a lot to choose from!

Van and Megan decided they would like to visit San Sebastian in the Basque country of Spain where they could enjoy the new gourmet cuisine it has become famous for, as well as the traditional tapas in the old quarter, the beach, art museums, and the spanish countryside.  Unfortunately there were not a lot of properties to choose from, but I  was able to send out ten exchange offers eight months before their wedding to homes in San Sebastian and the surrounding countryside of Spain and waited to see what would come back.  I only received one potential exchange response.

Apartment In San Sebastian Spain

However, the one response I received was Van's favorite property.  Chema owned two apartments in this lovely historic apartment building in the middle of San Sebastian, within walking distance to the beach, and was interested in a possible exchange for our Costa Rica condo.  We all thought this would be perfect, but it proved to be too good to be true, as Chema decided a month later that he was no longer interested in an exchange.  Now I was sent back to the drawing board to start broadening my search.

In the meantime, one day I received the following exchange offer:

Hello,

We are a french family and we are very interested to know Costa Rica (we love the tropical climate and often preserved nature and human beings met in these countries). Wonderful land , we are sure !

Your ad draws our\'s attention and seems very interesting.

We live in south west of France (in \"les Landes\" , a preserved region) near the atlantic ocean (3 min by car / 10 min by bike.  We have done 4 exchanges for three years and all of them were wonderful.

We are searching an exchange (simultaneous or not) during this year 2012 : between 17/18 of april to 01 of May.

Thank you very much to have payed attention to this mail and we are waiting for the answer . See you soon.

Best regards

GILLES AND VIRGINIE

I immediately located where Gilles and Virginie's home was on a map  and realized that it was about an hour from San Sebastian, Spain,  where Van wished to stay.  I asked Van and Megan if they would be interested in Southern France instead of Northern Spain and they said of course!  Another exchange was now set into motion!

The Proposed French Cottage

I explained to Gilles and Virginie that this exchange would be for my son and his new bride and asked if that would be acceptable to them.  They were very happy to hear from me, agreed to the exchange, and asked to Skype with me in order to get to know each other better.  After a 45 minute conversation via Skype I felt like Gilles and Virginie were now my new friends.  They were very excited to have Van and Megan stay at their home, wanted to meet them upon their arrival to show them around, and give them tourist information about the area.  They were also excited to be able to return to Costa Rica where they had been several years before, and this time to bring their children with them.  

Sunset At Messanges, France

In eight weeks Van and Megan will be traveling to the little village of Messanges, France to enjoy this sunset, some Bordeaux wine, lots of wonderful French food, explore the Basque region of Spain and France, and have a honeymoon of a life time, all thanks to a home exchange offer from across the other side of the world.  Stay tuned for pictures of their trip when they return. I'm sure there will be lots!