Every few months, Claudine and Jean-Louis, a retired couple living in Aveyron, in the south of France, pack their bags to start some somewhat peculiar vacation. Sometimes their destination is a castle in the Saône-et-Loire region. Others, a house with a pool in French Provence. They are not millionairesbut no one charges them to stay in those luxurious properties.
In return, the retired couple only has to give to eat a catwater a garden and collect mail from people they barely know. They have been doing it for twelve years and they told it in Le Figaro Emploi like someone describing any routine.
Behind these apparent luxury vacations, there is a system with clear rules and an unexpected reason: they have to go spend the summer in palaces and mansions with pool because your retirement pension it wasn’t enough for them to go on vacation.
The trick has a name: home-sitting
The name sounds very modern, but in reality the idea is as old as asking a family member, neighbor or friend to stop by from time to time to water your plants or feed the cat during your vacation.
In the case of home-sitting, that caregiver is not your neighbor, but rather they may have to travel across the country to water your plants, so the incentive is to allow them to stay free in your house while the order lasts. It is an exchange in kind in which there is no money involved.
The retired couple has been using DomSittinga French platform specialized in this type of situation, designed only for retirees. Each assignment lasts from a few days to several weeks, and the owner usually explains the tasks to be carried out and shows the house in person before leaving on vacation. “Without DomSitting, we simply would not be able to travel,” Claudine declared to the French digital.
They don’t put just anyone in your house
Entering this world is not automatic. At the end of the day it is about bring a stranger into your house. As a control measure, they ask for a clean criminal record and insurance to cover possible damage to the home. Nomadorthe most used platform in France outside the exclusive circuit for retirees, requires verification of the DNI or passport and covers the home with insurance of up to 50,000 euros for damages.
Once the profile is approved, the retiree can choose between assignments spread throughout France, and sometimes also extend to Switzerland or the Netherlands.
Before each stay they sign a contract with specific rules, such as not receiving guests in the “borrowed” house. The assigned tasks are simple: walk the dog, water pots, make sure everything works. Nothing that a seventy-year-old retiree can’t do without effort.
Word of mouth of this “trick” to stay in luxury villascastles or mansions during the summer has made it spread like wildfire. A French travel YouTuber posted a video from a villa in Nantes with a jacuzzi that, according to her, she “could never have afforded” on her own. His only tasks were to water a huge garden and feed Melchior, the house cat. He paid about 30 euros for three months of access to Nomador and chained five weeks of free accommodation in different destinations.
Vacations within reach of retirees
As indicated in their interview with the French media, Claudine and Jean-Louis’ joint pension is around 2,400 euros per month. It is not a low figure, but it does not leave much room for frequent getaways, taking into account the prices in France.
According to the latest data As of 2025 from the French Government’s statistical agency, the average pension of a retiree in France is 1,666 euros gross, about 1,541 euros net. And today the country has 17.2 million retired people.
The home-sitting alternative allows them to travel to other cities in the country, they do not pay rent, electricity, gas, or water in the place where they stay. They also hardly spend any money on their own home while they are away.
Your vacation expenses only involve day-to-day gas and food. Claudine calculates that They save about 5,000 euros a yearmoney that previously went into hotels or vacation homes that never they could have afforded.
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Image | Unsplash (Alejandra Cifre González, 冷毛)
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