To think this is fucking crazy

Honestly I don't know why I'm still bothering to correct the misinformation, but ... no, you are wrong on two counts.

• First, France has a ban on wearing burqas in public. There is no problem with wearing a burqa in a holiday flat.
• Second, the owner states that he refuses service to women who are 'voilées'. In French, this does not mean women wearing burqas; this means women wearing headscarves. So he is refusing service to all Muslim women, not just those in burqas.

If the owner believed that it was illegal for him to rent his holiday flat to Muslim women, he presumably would have said so. Instead, he said that he doesn't rent to Muslims because it makes the neighbours uncomfortable.

RACISM.

This

The holiday is in France, where there is a burka ban, and the owner refuses service to burka wearing families.

Extremism from Muslim groups in France or elsewhere is neither the fault of Jews nor the Israeli government.

I'm not sure what your point is?

France has a burka ban, so there's that.

It's discrimination to refuse to provide a service to someone on the basis of disliking something about their religion, though.

What do you mean by 'it's the law' I wonder? Because no, refusing to rent a holiday flat to Muslim women who wear hijab is not 'the law' in France. 🙄Women staying on private property can legally wear whatever the hell they like.

Seriously, I despair, there is so much misinformation on this thread.

You can leave a stinking review once you've had your holiday and are safely back home, OP. Meanwhile I entirely understand how the idea of spending your money and possibly having to rub shoulders during your precious holiday time with a racist has left you with a bad taste in your mouth.

I can't understand all those saying 'So what?' Surely most of us have friends or work colleagues or neighbours from different ethnic backgrounds — some of them Muslim? If this host has a problem with any of them because of their religion or ethnicity then I have an issue with the host. Shrugging and saying 'so what, forget it' as so many have here is condoning racism.

It's not racist to dislike the prohibitions of a religion.

If she were to say the Israeli government were responsible it would be more reasonable.

I wouldn't knowingly pay money to someone who was racist, but if I'd already paid for something, and knew there was no way I could get my money back, I'd definitely be doing what I paid for. Then when I left, I'd send an email explaining what I really thought.

Try not to let it ruin your holiday OP. You had no way of knowing this prior to booking.

It’s the law regardless of their views

If that's how you talk about your "best friend" behind her back, I dread to imagine what you say about people you don't like...

We’ll go but OP I just came back from Arcachon in France where the pool was shared and they were absolute pains about it so PLEASE read every rule left out, they were so domineering and aggressive towards us. We felt very unwelcome.

Tell him you are Muslim and see if he cancels it?! 😆 Then you will know if he is being racist or just following French custom.

I think what OP said they said was

Recently we refused the rental because the wife and the two young daughters were veiled; are you english or muslim? We do not want you to make the trip and see yourself refused access to our property for reasons of displaying religious beliefs which are very resented by the neighborhood.

nothing to do with the pool

Yes, that's great advice, and very generous.

What if the OP was Muslim though? What would she be expected to do, not go on holiday because of her religious beliefs? Racist host. Secularity is a good excuse to exercise racist views.

I'm so sorry that this has happened to you! Finding new accommodation in peak season is going to be hellishly difficult if you're already en route, so if I were you, I would probably go with the suggestion @EnidSpyton made: staying chez monsieur le raciste as planned, but then reporting the hell out of him afterward, and leaving him the worst possible review.

I love France, speak French and have done some academic work on French feminism. I understand the importance of laïcité/secularism and so on. But that message is 100% racist. I'm shocked by how many posts on this thread are trying to minimise the racism.

Just because anti-Muslim racism is common in France does not make it OK. The French law against wearing full facial veils applies only in public, not on someone's private property. And the word 'voilée' (veiled) which the man used in his message does not necessarily refer to the burqa or niqab. 'Le voile' often just means headscarf or hijab. A veil that covers the whole face is 'le voile intégral’. This man won't rent to Muslims, period. And he says his neighbours don't like Muslims. He's a racist, pure and simple. Undoubtedly votes for the Rassemblement National.

I've just returned from an Airbnb in Marseille where our host happened to be a lovely Muslim woman (as we discovered when we arrived). I guess that's the difference between Marseille and rural Provence...

But how would you feel to turn up to your expensive, long awaited summer holiday and be told you were going to be restricted in the times you could use the communal pool because there were Muslim male guests who felt they could not share a pool with women not in their family? I would be upset not to have been warned in advance. It wouldn't surprise me if this host has had issues with this in the past- there have been several posters who have had this happen to them, they've been fine with it but I would be extremely disappointed, and frankly feel that my holiday had been ruined. Not because I hate Muslims, but because on holiday I want to be free to use the pool when I want to!

On another note I live in an area of London which has a large Muslim minority. The local council ran a regular women only swim hour at the leisure centre along with free taster swim lessons, which I went to and many muslim women came covered up and had a really great time. They ran this sort of thing to help with integration and also improve swimming competency in populations where women often don't swim due to feeling uncomfortable in mixed environments.

I personally thought it was lovely and a great initiative to encourage integration.

Thinking you can ban the veil just makes people feel unwelcome and (during the research in my dissertation) in some cases led some minorities feel like they were choosing between their culture and (because it is a cultural and not a religious symbol ultimately) their nationality. Many may not have chosen to wear the veil at all if the government hadn't made such a big deal about it.

Anyway fascinating issue with so many complexities, but as mentioned before these hosts are just thinly veiled (pardon the pun) racists.

Reply: Pas probleme, personne n'est voilee. On etait curieux quant a la piscine, c'est tout. Merci.
Cordialement

Some people aren’t comfortable around bigotry [even] if they aren’t the target of it. Just cos you might be, doesn’t mean everyone is.

Hopefully OP will have a nice holiday and also report to the booking site and warn like minded people off that place / village.