Communication with gite owners

Just something you might consider……my husband and I have been watching the ESCAPE TO THE CHATEAU series and the ETTC DIY series and have thoroughly enjoyed seeing these English owners renovate lovely and historic chateaus…….and almost all of them host travelers as B&B’s or have gites they have refurbished. I follow a lot of them on Instagram……they all speak English and some French and are thrilled to host guests as this is the income they use to fund the work and upkeep on their homes. If one of these is anywhere near where you will be traveling in France you might check into a gite that is owned by a chateau owner. The chateau owners seem to be located all over France….might not be difficult to find one. DM me if you want me to send the names of the few I follow.

On Gites de France if you click on a property there is a box 'your host', if you click on the 'find out more' button it says which languages they speak.

I've used Gites de France many times over the last 30 years, and Nancy is correct. However, I think there is a lot of leeway as to what it means when it says the gite owner speaks English. My wife speaks very good French, so it hasn't been an issue for us. And if the GDF web site says the owner speaks English, at the very least it's likely you'll be able to deal with any routine matters after you arrive. And to make things easier, I would limit the rental search to only those in which the rental is through GDF. That avoids any hassles as to how to pay the deposit and balance before arrival, and transmission and signing of the contract.

I've only used that website once a few years ago (typically we use Airbnb) and I don't recall if this is relevant, but assuming you find a property that is compelling, if Gîtes de France would provide a means to contact the owner, use an online translator to write a message to send them. Just explain that you're an anglophone with very limited French skills, and ask if they speak English sufficiently to answer questions for you. It's not rude at all.

My recommendation, if you don't speak French, would be to use DeepL as an initial translator from English to French and then check it by translating back to English with either Bing or Google translate. That will help you catch errors that may arise from your use of colloquial English or English that doesn't match French sentence construction. It won't be perfect, but chances are very good it will be close enough to be understood.