alistair sawday special places to stay in france::I like a place to have personality, not somewhere where people are obviously slaves to fashion alistair sawday special places to stay in france

alistair sawday special places to stay in france::I like a place to have personality, not somewhere where people are obviously slaves to fashion.
I hate the word chic.
It has to feel authentic, to reflect the people who live there.
Do you find any differences in those run by the french and those run by nonfrench?
If the owners are not french, we make sure they know and love their adopted country.
What do you look for in a good gite?
We cover the whole range.
Our main criterion is taste, but value for money matters, too.
Good beds are essential; kitchen equipment, however simple, must work; the place must feel caredfor.
What mistakes do owners make?
All sorts of people are going to come and stay, you need to be able to see them as individuals and warm to them, even if they are very different from you.
Are regulations stricter in france than in the uk?
The major difference is that the french are very good at disregarding rules and the british are almost neurotic about adhering to them.
Do you still manage to visit every place?
We have more than 5,000 places on our lists now and a team of local inspectors.
We try to visit every four years, unless there are bad reports, in which case we go back before inviting them into the next edition.
As for the guidebooks, we reedit about every two years.
We now have a permanent team here in the uk for our online editions too.
There is an increasing demand for independence, and with the poor exchange rate of the pound and the euro, staying in one place for a week and selfcatering a word i hate but what else can you use makes sense.
How did you get into publishing?
I decided to do it myself, and printed way above the 6,000 i was advised.
In fact we sold out of the first 12,000 straightaway and had to do another print run.
We sold 24,000 in all.
And your bestseller today?
What do you enjoy most about your publishing venture?
We are passionate about the environment.
Our books are more and more a platform for good practice in that field.
We are hugely respectful of people in france who take up the cudgels for the local economy and put in a lot of hard work to keep it buoyant.
In my opinion, travel should be used to open our eyes and to protect the local economy.
If you travel around you are trashing the planet and people should realise that.