A Successful HouseSwap: Our Manhattan, Their Provence, France

I cannot say enough for their genorosity, friendliness and hospitality.

When I look back on our amazing house swapping experience in Aix-En-Provence, France, all I can tell you is it started with me and my husband on craigslist, from our couch in New York City. And there we found Gael and Christine, the lovely French couple smiling from ear to ear emerging out of their lovely home in Aix.

I wanted to be them. I wanted their lifestyle. And that's exactly what we got.

For six weeks, my husband and I have lived in their hundred-year-old home in the French university town in the south called Aix-En-Provence.

We've socialized with their friends and family. And more importantly, Gael and Christine have managed to touch our hearts.

We couldn't have encountered better people.

We've had people ask us how we did it and frankly, it was super simple. Things just seemed to work out effortlessly -- much like the best things in life do. So we've provided some details here:

Preparing to Swap
Within two weeks of sending them an initial e-mail we had agreed to swap. They would come to our New York City flat and we would live in their home in Provence, taking little side trips to smaller southern French towns.

For weeks we exchanged e-mails about everything from 'What Should We Do With Our Time?' to 'Would We Be Needing A Car?' All of their French was put in a English translator (Unfortunately, we didn't know much French then and we know only a little bit more now.)

Exchanging Important Information
It was decided we would travel to Aix before they boarded a plane to the United States. They would get us from the train station in Aix and bring us to their house. (They made sure we got the right train from Paris.)

A Welcoming Party
We arrived at the Aix-En-Provence train station to true Southern hospitality. Christine had crafted a sign from construction paper that read, 'Danielle et Georges, Welcome In Aix.' Underneath the Welcome it had in smaller type 'Bienvenue.' We immediately felt at home. (The sign had her signature brand on it, the one she uses on everything she makes.)

Thirty minutes from the train station we were at our new house and the smells from the kitchen were of bread and chocolate. (She offered us slices of the chocolate that were laced with luciscious fruit. The savory little bites of what were wonderful crossaints were brought out at the party.)

Gael was going for bread that was needed for the party and asked George and I if we wanted to come. We figured this would be a good time for me to try out the car and learn all the particulars. (This little trip introduced us to Paul Bread, which has come to be our favorite place to get our baguette and pastries every day.)

Back at the house we were shown how to operate the washing machine (when I asked where the dryer was, I was told everything gets hung out to dry. Which we soon discovered is how everything gets its wonderful freshly dried smell here.)

We were also shown the working of the coffee maker, the cookbooks, the pots and pans and the spices. Then we were shown a map indicating the numerous hiking routes around the famed Mount St. Victorie.

The highlight for me was the back yard with the rose bushes, the irises and the herb garden (all labeled in French). We stopped at the mint bush and I took a leaf and broke it in between my fingers and held my hand to my nose. (I knew we had some great cooking ahead of us in Christine's gourmet kitchen.)

After the tour of the house we went back inside and people started arriving for the party. One by one, we met all the friends and family, about 20 people, including the gardener, Christine's sister and husband, the neighbor down the street who is also a translator and a friend who is an attorney. We also met the two students who would be living in the back part of the house (one French and one Swedish.)

By the end of the party we had a list of French names and phone numbers with an idea of who each person was. Everyone told us to call them. They wanted to show us their favorite things about the area. (We thought we were the luckiest people in the world. A built-in system of friends, things to do and places to go. And on top of it, the house seemed like the biggest we'd ever had.)

As people left and the group got smaller we opened our laptops and showed Gael and Christine the pictures we'd had so far. Christine asked for my Skype password so we could talk back and forth without it costing hardly anything. (Thank goodness for Skype. This is the way we've been able to keep up with everyone in the States.)

Gael and Christine arriving in New York
Gael sent us an e-mail that they had arrived safely in New York. We learned that our apartment had provided the spot for their reunion with their daughter -- who they hadn't seen in a while. They were happy they would be able to have her stay with them in the apartment since it has two bedrooms.

More friends in Aix
About a few days after Gael's e-mail, Christine's friend Marie e-mailed us and asked if we would like to come over to her apartment for dinner. She said she would have the dinner for us. All we had to do was show up. (Actually what she said was, 'I'll 'provide' the pizza and we just got a huge kick out of her using the term 'provide.' In the states we would say, 'I'll get the dinner.' (The French are just so much more sophisticated.)

When we arrived at Marie's apartment she had opera playing on the radio and you could smell the pizza cooking in the oven. On a side table she had placed white wine and something called 'Cassis' on a serving tray. She offered me an apertif of 'Cassis' and the wine -- frankly, I had no idea what it was, but I drank it and I loved it.

Marie was also responsible for turning us on to some of the best pizza in Aix. One night she met us on Cours Mirabeau and suggested Chez Jo. (Oh my goodness, the wood-fired pizza that they do right there is phenomenal.) She also took us to a movie at the Renior Theatre -- that plays French movies with English subtitles and English movies with French subtitles.

Shortly after our meeting with Marie we were invited over to Christine's sister's house. She had a wonderful lunch for us outside on her patio with stewed tomatoes and chicken. And to start things off, she offered us homemade tapenade and olive bread. During our lunch she let me in on the secret to great tapenade (it's the green in the garlic center's that has to be discarded. It's too strong. She also said to soak the olives overnight -- if not the tapenade gets too salty.)

In between the meals and the pastries, my husband and I both agreed we'd be a huge as house if we didn't do a little exercise. Back in the states we had located Aix Yoga (also in the town's center). When we showed up at the studio the first time there was no class. I had misread the French...it didn't say Monday through Thursday. It said, 'Mondays and Thursdays.'

So, at our first class at Aix Yoga the instructor was beaming when she said she was happy to have us. She introduced us and said, 'isn't it wonderful they are here and they are in town on their honeymoon.' And every once in a while -- and she really didn't have to -- she'd tell us the yoga pose instruction in English. After the class, we had a few students come up and ask us how we liked Aix. We said we loved it and that everyone had been unbelievably friendly to us.

Keeping in touch over the Atlantic
Each night after our day in Provence we'd sit on Gael and Christine's couch and upload pictures from our day's events. We knew Gael and Christine would get a kick from seeing their friends in our pictures. And hopefully they would look forward to the next day. (Who knows who we'd come up with next!)

And then Gael and Christine began to post their pictures of their New York experiences. One picture showed Christine in front of a brownstone once lived in by Truman Capote. Both my husband and I looked at each other and said, 'Where is that?' (They had discovered places that were in our backyard that we had no idea existed.)

Preparing to go back to our 'real' lives
About a week before having to go back to New York my husband and I talked about how sad we'd be -- and how many great experiences we had in Aix. We wrote down things that we just had to do the last week -- like seeing where Cezanne painted. And for me it also included a trip to the town of Aubagne for the pottery Marie told me about.

We talked about how this wouldn't be the last time we'd set foot in France. In fact, we talked about there being more to come and probably our next stop being up in the North.

For sure we know this, we have made lifelong friends in Aix and they know they are welcome anytime in the United States and we will gladly host them. Our biggest hope is that we can give back to them as much as they have given to us.