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Voyager en échangeant sa maison

by John Mensinger on May 26, 2010

Home Exchange University faculty member Didier Leclerc has written a book on home exchange in French.  It is called Voyager en échangeant sa maison.

I read the initial draft.  Didier’s a beautiful writer.  He provides a succinct and clear look at home exchange from the French cultural perspective.  We recommend his French language website on home exchange which is www.vacances-echange.info.  I liked this book so much I wanted to immediately translate it into English.  His publisher has the foreign language rights, so this might take a long time.  Didier is also working on a home exchange television project.  We will talk more about that as it develops.

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Home Exchange 101 Lesson 7 – Arrival

May 22, 2010
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Most exchangers find their own way to their house exchange.   We recommend a more complicated approach: Meeting the exchange family, either at our house, their place, or occasionally at the airport.
This face-to-face meeting builds trust, confidence, and friendship.  There’s opportunity to be shown how the TV system works with an expert right [...]

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Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Preparing for the Arrival and Welcome

May 10, 2010
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Thus far in Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6, we’ve looked at such concepts as organizing your vacation, preparing your home for guests,  creating a user’s manual for your home and agreeing to the rules and regulations.  Today, we conclude lesson 6 by looking at preparing for the arrival and welcome of your guests.
Meet the Partners
We [...]

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Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Agreeing to the Rules and Regulations

April 6, 2010
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Thus far in Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6, we’ve looked at such concepts as organizing your vacation, preparing your home for guests,  and creating a user’s manual for your home.  Today, we’ll delve into negotiating details regarding duties and expectations.  Such issues should be clarified and handled during the preparation period.
Reciprocating Favors
Exchange partners often request [...]

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Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Preparing Your “User’s Manual”

March 19, 2010
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Home Exchange University recommends creating a “User’s Manual” for your home.  The manual prepares your exchange partner for handling emergencies, maintenance issue and anything else that may come up during the exchange.  And remember: the more thorough your User’s Manual, the less often your exchange partner needs to contact you during the exchange and the [...]

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Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Preparing Your Home for Your House Exchange Guests

March 12, 2010
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In this, our third part of Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6, we’ll look at some critical steps in preparing your home to receive your homeswap partners.
To Each Their Own…
Families vary in their approach to house cleanliness, condition, and order.  Standards tend to be higher in families without children, which is one reason we recommend trading [...]

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Greetings from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics!

March 2, 2010
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Frineds,
I have always dreamed of attending the Olympic Games in person. I haven’t yet managed it, probably because I am World Class when it comes to the “Cheapskating” competition. We have all read horror stories about the high costs of accommodation and how enterprising residents will move out of their homes and rent [...]

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Thinking France

February 24, 2010
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We recently found two useful home exchange websites from France.  The first is www.camago.com, they provide home exchange advice and information on home exchange agencies.  If you speak French this is an interesting, comprehensive, and valuable website.
On the Other Hand..
If you don’t speak French you can use the English version of their website.  [...]

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Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Organizing Your Vacation to Maximize Enjoyment

February 17, 2010
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In this, our second part of Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6, we’ll look at a few ways to organize your trip to get the most out of it.  But first, enjoy one of our typical slightly-off-mark-but-mostly-true analogies:
Party Like a Rock Star
Let’s say you want a party.  You want a great party.  You want people to [...]

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Home Exchange 101 Lesson 6 – Preparing for Your Home Exchange

February 11, 2010
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Do me a favor.
Go and find a blindfold.
You heard me.  Go and get an old scarf, or a strip of cloth or something else that you can tie around your head for complete blindness.
Got it?  Good.
Now go and find some liquor.  Something with good kick, like scotch, or whiskey, or Goldschlager…
Now take a few shots.  [...]

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