To The Airbnb Born

For less than the price of our needed two rooms in a moderately priced hotel, we rented an entire six-bedroom, completed renovated 200-year old French chateaux, an hour outside of Bordeaux, France instead. Complete with caretakers, vineyards, and a little (10-15 houses) village up the road. It is called the Clos-Castaing, and Suzanne found it, as well as most of our other apartments, on the international house rental website, Airbnb.com. She has done an amazing effort finding cheap flights, hotel rooms and apartment for this trip through her savvy and diligent web searching. And as her Mom, Grandma Linda, was a Travel Agent for a while back in the day, she comes by it naturally and honestly. :)

Izzy was worried that the chateau would have spiders, and Maddy that it was haunted. Ben worried about internet connection speed. I did too frankly - and about the hot water!

It was even right on a river (the famous wine country Dordogne), as was complete with a canoe and two kayaks. We tried them all, but the current was too strong, so we paddled around for an hour and gave up (what wussies!).

What was it like inside? Very comfortable and lovely, if only a bit chilly with the stone floors. It was often warmer outside than in, so we opened all of the doors and windows.

What a great place to spend a few days and learn about the rural French vineyard culture. It was a great decision in every way!

- Mike