This article is reprinted by permission from . In the year before COVID, during the rainy winter season when I had been in my apartment wearing sweatpants and a frayed sweater for way too many days, my restless web browsing introduced me to the world of international home exchange. I eagerly posted my apartment and responded to an offering for a three-bedroom stone farmhouse in the south of France for a month in July with an immediate and enthusiastic yes. I invited two of my closest women friends to join me. They delightedly…
