A favorite aspects of home exchange is access to special events. Sure, international travel, often leads to attending unique cultural events. But home exchange reveals a completely different perspective. Your not just attending the typical tourist traps. Your exchange partners, their friends and their family will certainly help you identify and gain attendance to some little-known events that others may not even know about. Here are some snapshots from my past travels…
Stroll on Over to the Tour de France
My family arranged for an exchange near Lausanne, Switzerland last summer. We had planned on beautiful alpine scenery, Swiss efficiency, and tasty fondue. A bonus was special events during our three week stay. The Tour de France passed within a half hour of our exchange home. I parked the car 50 meters from the route. We had a pleasant two hours in Romont, a town on a hill with castle and intact city walls. After the race had passed through it took a minute to reach the car and 30 minutes to drive home. We had time to see the last two hours of that day’s stage through Switzerland on the television.
Making F. Scott Fitzgerald Proud
We were also less than 30 minutes from Montreux, famous for its Jazz festival. You can pay several hundred Swiss Francs to hear the world’s best musicians. Or you can pay nothing. Parking is free, the shuttle bus is free, and there are free concerts in parks alongside Lake Geneva. I loved the Chipping Camden School Swing Orchestra and their female vocalists that did a wonderful job on Andrews Sisters standards from the 1940’s. Besides music there are hundreds of vendors selling drinks in a coconut, Nespresso, Sushi, African handicrafts, and life’s other non necessities. The music continues until 5am in the morning, though we would leave after the fireworks show over the lake around 11pm.
In Good Company with the Queen
It pays to investigate special events in advance. We were in Northern England, less than two hours from Edinburgh, which has its high brow festival as well as a scruffy alternative known as the fringe. There is an iconic show of military precision and music at Edinburgh Castle known as the Tattoo. We bought our tickets months in advance and were at the same performance as her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the II, who was celebrating the 50th year of her reign. It was a fabulous show.
Feeling Festive
Minor events can be delightful. We were in Shropshire one summer and our town was having its annual festival. One of the organizers was a neighbor. We attended a lecture on the local mountains, a jazz concert in the parish church, and an organ recital in an ancient looking church with a thatched roof, which it turns out was built in the 1920’s. Our neighbor arranged for tickets and reserved seats. We had met a few locals during our stay. It was fun that at each of these performances we would meet someone we knew.
I Did Not Joust, Though…
In France one year we were ten minutes from the town of Clisson. They have the Medievales, a medieval festival. Hundreds of folks dress up from that period and the castle grounds have exhibits, food stalls, and fun activities, such as shooting a bow and arrow. There are markets and stages with exhibitions, plays, and musical performances, most with costumed medieval characters.
Just Missed It
My only regret is that last summer we departed Switzerland on August 1, which is their national day. I know our exchange partners wanted to be home that day, in the future we will plan on an extra day in the hotel. I don’t know what we missed, but it would have been folkloric and historic with lots of food, wine and beer, and fireworks.
John Mensinger is co-founder of HomeExchangeuniversity.com and an experienced home exchanger. His passion is helping others experience the enjoyment (and cost savings!) of home exchange. John can be reached at jm_at_homeexchangeuniversity_dot_com.
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