Like for Like?

I know I keep going on about holidays but I'd love to live in a European city, not as a tourist, just live there.
Well, It seems when you no longer have the freedom to go off and 'live' somewhere exotic for a year or so there is a 'grown up with business, partners, responsibilties' option. You can go on holiday and 'swap homes' for a couple of weeks.
The concept was made more popular by the film The Holiday a couple of years back, in which Kate Winslet swapped her stereotypical 'middle of nowhere' chintz English cottage:

for Cameron Diaz's stereotypical LA over-designed super gaff:

Great idea huh? Apart from the fact i'd have to move most of my junk out and get industrial cleaners in, it's supposed to save you the cost of accomodation and you get to live as a local.
I, however, can't help but feel my swapee would be extremely disappointed, to arrive in damp Edinburgh, with keys to a one and a half bedroom flat above a Mexican restaurant, while I lorded it up in their '18th Century Mansion just 15 minutes from Paris.'
Check this place out!







Available to swap at Luxe Home Swap

The Holiday set images found on Discover: Interior Design