Jos and Lieve Janssen-Moons had their 100th exchange this summer.
The Belgian James Bond (BE007) accomplished his mission by having his 100th exchange with a Spanish family from Barcelona.
Jos and Lieve started exchanging houses in the summer of 1981. Their first exchange took them to Linz (Austria). A second swap followed in Leeds (England) where they faced rain for two weeks.
All Over Europe And North America
Over the course of 34 years, they reached the magical number of 100 exchanges, scattered all over Europe and across the Atlantic Ocean. They got to know houses and made friends from Helsinki in the north of Europe to Lisbon in the south and from Devon in the west to Thessaloniki in the east.
Teachers, Jos and Lieve, experienced 20 exchanges in Germany and some 17 with Spain ever since their son started his family in Granada. Of course, they speak Spanish fluently now.
The USA and Canada became favorites and they lived in New York, Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, Washington DC, Chicago, and Seattle. In Canada, they were very glad to visit Montreal and Vancouver. During the exchange, they became friends with a family of Windermere whom they exchanged with a year later. They even had the opportunity to swop houses with a family living on an Indian reserve in the Rocky Mountains. And yes, there they were confronted with a grizzly bear in their garden.
Of course, they also did some small holidays and long weekends closer to home during Spring and Autumn months. 2008 was a fabulous year with 9 exchanges in 12 months! Nowadays Jos and Lieve are exploring Poland from Zakopane to Lublin and from Warsaw to Danzig. They even did some house-sitting in France, Switzerland, and Belgium.
Intervac-People Become Friends For Life
Jos and Lieve proved this when they arranged and enjoyed an exchange together with the Spanish family they had exchanged with before. This time together, they visited Weimar, doing the Bach tour. Afterwards, they renewed their friendship again – a third exchange in the Catalan Pyrenees. And the same thing happened with families from Marseille, Granada, Helsinki, Sevilla, and Göttingen.
The family they exchanged with in Granada even supervised building Jos and Lieve’s son’s house there when he moved to Spain.
Not only their son, but also their daughter has taken up exchanging houses (Washington DC and Paris) making their family members of the 2-Generations Home Exchange Club.
Although Jos and Lieve moved from their home to a flat in Hasselt 20 years ago the offers to exchange keep coming. This year they have swapped houses with 5 more families.
During those 100 exchanges Jos and Lieve have just had 1 bad experience … Just 1! So, if you ask Jos and Lieve their best travel advice: Enjoy holidays …. Enjoy Intervac ! ! !
