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European Lodging

I WAS INTERESTED to read your ideas for locating cheap places to stay in Europe ["Cheap Sleeps Across the Pond," April 6] and wanted to share one of my own.

While my family was posted in Luxembourg for an overseas assignment, the dollar was weak, so we looked for inexpensive ways to stretch our vacation budget. I found the Web site at http://www.gites-de-france.com/gites/uk/rural_gites during a search for lodging.

The site offers properties in all regions of France, and the search mechanism makes it easy to find listings by availability, size, price, location, etc. It also offers listings of children's gites, campsites and chambres d'hote, and links to travel resources within France. (For listings in other European countries, see http://www.eurogites.org.)

Using the site, we rented for the week a lovely barn conversion in France. It was adequately furnished for our family of six, welcomed our large dog and was convenient to local shopping. Each morning, the baker came by offering fresh breads and pastries. It was a truly authentic French countryside experience.

Sabrina Volciak

Herndon

Passport Success

I HAD A fabulous experience with the D.C. passport office recently. It was 24 hours before our flight when I realized that my husband's and my passport had expired five days earlier. I called the passport office and made a same-day appointment for a passport.

Once there, we stood in a short line and were out the door in 20 minutes with a promise that our passports would be ready in two hours.