Readers’ World: A house-sitting holiday in France

Beverley Nel finds caring for a stranger’s stuff is a great way to experience life as a local in a charming village in the Loire Valley The display in the window should have been a giveaway but in my pursuit of living like a local, I went to the local butcher to buy mince. It was only later - when the unfamiliar, sweet smell of the meat cooking permeated the kitchen in my adopted house - that I discovered I had indeed purchased meat from "un Boucher Chevalin", a horse butchery.