Gite or Villa Accomodation?

Gite or Villa Acommodation- what is in a name?

Gite or Villa, what should our spacious ground level French holiday acommodation be called?

Sometimes Gite is also miss-spelt as Gitte, Jite or Jitte. The word Villa is in English dictionaries, but Gite, Geet ,Gitte, Jite or Jitte are not. So, Gite is a French word, Villa an English one, and Jite Gitte, Geet, Jite or Jitte are are just wrong!

Here in the south of France we think that it should be called a Gite, or really a Gîte (the ^ over the 'i' is called a circumflex). Our friends in the UK want to call our Gîte a holiday Villa. Certainly the word Villa is more widely used by UK citizens when describing rental holiday houses or self-contained holiday accommodation. The phrase ‘A villa in the sun’ seems to conjures up more feelings and imagery of a warm, tranquil, peaceful and lazy place where you have all the creature comforts, can bask in the sun and generally chill-out. The phrase ‘A Gite in the sun’ may not immediately arouse such strong ideals to Anglo-Saxon speakers.

Villa is a word with Roman roots, and can be used to describe a large country residence, perhaps with a courtyard. Our main holiday rental accommodation is certainly very spacious, and we do have a garden and a sun-kissed swimming pool.

‘Gite’ was used by the British to describe extremely basic and very cheap holiday accommodation. Now, the word Gite is synonymous with well-appointed or even luxurious holiday home(s) for rent in France.

Whatever it is called we know that our holiday guests enjoy our accommodation & Swimming Pool, and have a lovely time relaxing and discovering the wonderful Roussillon area of central South France.

If you would like to give us your opinions then please email us.

 
Jolanta & Steve Williams and UK friends!

enquiry@peachvalley.co.uk

Tel: 00 33 4 68 05 96 44

6 Cami Ral, 66320 Rodès, France.

Ver 0.9562 Last updated 23.01.2004 Copyright © PeachValley Holidays 2003, 2004