My wife and I will be motoring through the Loire next week-
we want very much to stay in a small establishment (gite) experience small town French hospitality and cuisine. We have deliberately not not reserved a hotel for 3 nights in the hopes that we will find what we want in France- is this totally insane? If not, how does one proceed?
Norman
Hi Norman!
I don’t think it’s crazy at all, except doing it in August. This year especially, a lot of French people are renting Gites instead of going to hotels or the usual vacations spots. It may be difficult to find a gite available. And, for sure, the best ones will already be rented out.
The best way to proceed is to get the official gites de france book and call each and everyone of those in the loire until you find one you can rent. As far as we know there is no reliable service that can book gites online in real-time. Maybe someone can recommend such a site.
In short it’s not crazy, but it won’t be easy either. Good luck and let us know how it went! We’d love to hear from you!