tcreath

We are thinking about visiting the Dordogne area in May of next year. I'm just casually looking at gites because, well, it's fun. I'm noticing that all of the gites that I've seen have rental prices for the week. We would only be able to stay in the area for about 5 nights. If the weekly price was within our budget I guess we could just pay for the week but only stay 5 nights, but I'm curious as to whether any of them would possibly rent by the night if I inquired? Does anyone know of any gites near Sarlat (although our base would be flexible) that has a nightly rate?

Thanks!
Tracy

Christina

I don't know about that area but I know that all official French gites do not only rent for a week. They have sections on the website that describes periods (week, mid-week or weekend), and you can search by that. I don't think any are going to rent for a night or by the night. They have rates for different periods, whether week or weekend, that are set.

Some may rent for 5 nights specifically, you'd just have to ask. When they rent for less than a week, I think it is almost always in off season. If you look at a particular gite and it doesn't even mention weekend pricing, then I think you'd look elsewhere. You can choose gites that rent by the weekend at times, it's in the search tool. I think Gites generally rent weekly or Mon to Fri or Fri to Mon.

Michael

We stayed in a B&B overnight where the unit was also rented as a gite. I suspect that under such circumstances, the daily rental would be higher than the gite rental, but that the gite rental might be less than a week. My recollection is that the host asked us if we wanted breakfast, so the daily rental was not automatically a full B&B.

kerouac

Many gites have weekend or long weekend rates. They could not survive in the off season without that.

StuDudley

We've stayed in Gites in June, early July, Sept, and Oct. We've rented 29 different Gites & have 2 "new ones" reserved for this coming July. All 31 Gites were rented through Gites de France & rent on a Sat to Sat basis (minimum 1 week). I've seen some advertised as being available for 3 days or so - but that may be off season, like kerouac & Christina mentioned.

Stu Dudley

Carlux

You have to understand that a gite is not a hotel, or a B&B - if we normally rent by the week, and you want only a few days, it means that we wouldn't be able to rent the rest of the week to anyone else.

Unlike hotels and B&B's, which are set up to deal with short-term rentals, most gites and rental properties aren't. We don't normally attract short-stays - we don't have people knocking on the door looking for a night or two. And most people don't have the cleaning staff or laundry arrangements to deal with short stays.

The only time we would consider this is for a last minute, or very off-season booking, not likely in May, which is very popular.

There are plenty of beautiful chambres d'hotes (B$B) where you could be happy for 5 nights - or even better, stay a little longer. One week is nowhere near enough, and 5 days is really too short.

tedgale

Tracy: we were in the Dordogne in May 2009. May is not high season there. That means there will be more flexibility.

Basically, you shd find a place that attracts you and then ask them if they will make a deal for 5 nights.

The answer will likely be Yes, unless the tourist traffic has picked up a LOT since 2009.

Remember, the Dordogne is the favourite region of the English and the pound has lately taken a beating.

Our (English) hostess in our beautiful gite near Curemonte (where we did a 6 night deal) told us their bookings were way down and that several English friends were trying to sell their 2nd residences in the Dordogne....

BTW, here is the gite where we stayed in the Dordogne -- see Photo 10 and those that follow:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=8501dc154a

tedgale

Tracy: BTW, check out the abs in one of those photos. Wish I looked like that now -- I`ve been spending too much time in the Southern US and in Italy and eating way too much ribs + pasta.

tcreath

Thank you all for your replies! I understand why owners would choose to rent by the week. I have rented apartments in Germany, Italy and Croatia and each of them were by the night so I'm not used to the one week rental periods, but it's fine. As I mentioned above, when I find one I like I would more than likely inquire about perhaps a 5 night stay. If the owners deny the request we will pay the full price but just check out a few days early.

Ted, I absolutely love the gite! I just checked out the website and they do offer a low-season nightly rate of 80 euro/night with a 3-night minimum, which sounds like a bargain given the look of the cottage! The location looks perfect. Were the pictures taken in May? Because if so, it looks like a gorgeous time to visit. And you sure were rockin those abs! Hey, you have to indulge on vacation. Exercise and diet can wait until one returns home!

Tracy

tedgale

Yes we were there in May. It was quite hot the whole time -- warmer than usual, certainly.

I love that area and the property is very peaceful and well maintained. The pool area is superb.

The ONLY negative, IMO, is that not a lot of restaurants are open in May. We don't like to drive at night, so we mostly ate in -- not really a hardship, as all the local produce is so great.

One night, we ate well in nearby Curemonte at a ferme-auberge (a farm that offers meals). There are good places in Beaulieu but that is 20 minutes away.

cherrybomb

I found a lot of places on vrbo.com for May with three day minimums, particularly around Sarles where I was looking. Hope that helps.

Our plans changed so I cannot be of more assistace. Just want to be in full disclosure.

tedgale

Here is the albun of shots of Dordogne villages, churches and people from that trip. The Dordogne shots are #5 to #69.

Photos #5 to 43 were taken on daytrips from the Curemonte gite.

Photos #44 to 69 are shots of places further west/ downstream in the Dordogne and were taken after we left Curemonte. (We stayed at a B&B between Paunat and Limeuil, only about an hour away from Curemonte).

All these places could be seen in daytrips from a single location, therefore.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=8e87491a44

pavot

tedgale, your pictures are gorgeous! Thanks so much for sharing the links; I could pore over these all day....

nostrum

Wow, thank you so much for sharing these photos! We have loved looking through them, they are really amazing.

tcreath

Ted, your pictures are just gorgeous. We are considering both the Dordogne and Greece but are leaning towards the Dordogne at this point. Your pictures definitely help solidify that. We just love strolling around beautiful villages.

We aren't really foodies (I hate to say it, but I'm probably a tad too picky to enjoy all the fine gastromony that the area has to offer...no fois gras or duck confit for me!) so I'm sure we'll be fine.

cherrybomb, thanks for the tip! Silly enough, I never even thought to check out VRBO. We've used them for a couple of cabins here in the US but never abroad. I'll definitely have to check it out.

Tracy