This amazing house sit in the French Alps was the answer to our prayers. It might sound kind of crazy to hear but we were in desperate need of some downtime and we hadn’t even made it to Europe yet. However, just as predicted, our month long trip back to the States was a complete whirlwind of road tripping through the south, meeting up with friends and family and then scrambling to prepare for this jaunt through Europe. Only the latter part never really took place. There was just no time! If you follow us on Facebook you will recall that this mad rush of running around led me to getting sick in the final days before we left and not having a clue as to where we would be sleeping the night we got off the plane in Frankfurt.
And then, 3 days before we boarded our flights, everything just kind of fell into place. We heard back from one of the numerous house sits we applied for throughout Europe and they wanted us to come. To the French Alps. The day after we landed. In Frankfurt. So we made the executive decision to rent a car and drive the 7 hours to Conjux, France the very day after we landed. Who would turn down two weeks on a beautiful lake in the French Alps taking care of three girls by the names of Rosie, Sally and Mary?
This house sit could not have worked out better. It gave us a place to recharge our batteries after our month of madness being home and not having any time to ourselves really. We got back into a routine of waking up early and taking the dogs on a nice hour long walk (more of a jungle trek) through the woods nearby that led down to the lake. Little Mary loved to swim and the two older pups loved to spectate, although with the crazy heatwave that passed through some days they took the plunge and joined her.
It was nice to be back to cooking most meals, eating lots of fresh salads and detoxing from all of the American food cravings we fulfilled while we were home. Besides, we found that restaurants in France are only open for approximately 2.5 hours a day and they are pretty expensive so we preferred to cook for ourselves and eat on our own time.
The house sit also gave us a two week extension to map out the rest of our time in Europe (or at least an idea). We were able to catch up on some work on our affiliate websites since we barely worked at all the entire month we were home. Fortunately we can get away with that since it’s mostly passive income now. In fact, we actually had our best month of income yet and we did the least amount of work! However, we still like to keep an eye on things. We were also able to catch up on some blog posts from our 3 Days in Nashville and our first B&B experience at the Eight Gables Inn, as well as some videos for our YouTube channel. We even managed to get away and spend 4 nights on the gorgeous Lake Annecy during our house sitting break, when the home owners returned for a few nights in between their trips (blog post to come on that!)
When we weren’t walking the dogs or working or planning our road trip, we were out exploring the surrounding villages which constantly left us oohing and ahhing! There are not many international tourists so English is pretty scarce in these parts which made getting around…well interesting. It was an adventure for sure. But it was definitely one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen and we probably never would have seen it if it hadn’t been for this house sitting opportunity. In fact, after our 3 days spent in Paris, we really didn’t expect to be back in France so soon. But we are so glad we did. There is so much more to France than Paris! Every time we got in the car we were left in awe and wish we could share it with the world, yet we also want to keep it a secret at the same time. The fact that tourism hasn’t had a chance to ruin its beauty is part of what makes it so special.
We finished up the house sit a week ago and we are missing the pups big time. The only downfall to this job is you really do get attached! Since we left, we spent a few nights in Lake Como (LOVE!!), a night in Verona, a couple nights in Venice (blahhh) and we are now exploring beautiful Slovenia. In just a couple of days we will be slowing down again for another house sit in one of our favorite cities in Europe (hint hint – we visited last year!). This time we get 4 felines to care for! You can expect some more posts out of us then 😉
Have you ever considered house sitting or using a house sitter? Do you have any hesitations? Feel free to ask us any questions in the comments below or send us an email! Also, if you use our link to sign up you can save 20% off your membership and it gives us 2 months free! –> sign up here!
