My husband and I are renting an apartment for short term in france. We need to submit a security deposit – a check that won’t be cashed unless we don’t show up, or wreck the place during our stay.

What is the safest way to do this? Should we just send a personal check or what? We’ve done our homework on the people, but I am still hesitant since it’s a foreign country. How can we prevent the check from just being cashed and them running with our money?