How did you end up where you are now?

A snowHead

We came back from a family ski holiday around 5 ish years ago (jan 2007) and decided we wanted to move somehwere we could ski at weekends. OH applied for a few jobs in Calgary, two phone interviewed, one flew us out in march for a reccie. They offered a job far better paid than in UK including relocation and Nov 2007 we moved out here. Been here ever since, livin' the dream. Well really just same ish life as Uk with less rain, more snow, better job prospects with far less hours for OH, smaller class sizes for kids and a load more skiing.........

We still have a house in Yorkshire that we rent out, although its 200 yrs old and doesn't make the ideal rental property, it needs love and care.

A snowHead

I am living in Munich so not in the mountains but close enough. I just applied for a job anywhere in Europe that was within 2 hours of some decent skiing, J2skis website was very helpful in my job hunt Smile

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I probably ended up here in the Alps by chance. Looking for a change of job back in 1977, I was offered a post (in IT) in Munich. The prospect of skiing in the Alps was attractive as was the idea of learning a foreign language. I am single, without many ties, so I took the chance. Then I worked for about 30 years in Munich, largely freelance. My parents, who enjoyed good health up till their final illnesses, enjoyed coming out to visit.

With one intermediate move, I have ended up in Fieberbrunn (in Tyrol), the sale of my parents' house helping me to buy property here. Strangely, Fieberbrunn was where I had my second skiing holiday in Austria in 1965 - I don't suppose I ever imagined I would live here.

I haven't regretted the move, though perhaps I was lucky in having had work available for most of the time. The economic situation is probably more difficult now than it was thirty years ago. I still have a wider circle of friends back in Scotland where I grew up than I have built up here. But many of them visit me here too, skiers and in summer. As others have said, everyone has different priorities for what is important in life. Having few fixed ties certainly makes the move easier.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I finished university and decided to do "one season" in the mountains before I settled down to a "proper" job.

One season turned into 4 seasons, turned into proper jobs here, turned into our own business and to cut a long story short I never left!

Ironically one thing that I miss about the first few seasons that I did was the chance to ski every day - real life tends to get in the way once you settle down somewhere and I know very few people that have made their permenant home in the mountains that still ski for themselves every day.

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No desire whatsoever to live abroad, stay here earn enough money to travel to where I want to go when I want to go.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

'you're so lucky'....
This is the one statement that quite a few people say to us... and nope, I am not 'lucky' no luck was involved, just determination and a bit of bravado.

The biggest issue (as with most of life) is finances. Unless you are thinking short-term season related living. You can easily support yourself as a ski teacher (in Austria) for the winter season. The ski school will source very cheap accommodation (about €15 a night round here), so it is a comparative expense in relation to your earnings!

However, without securing a 12 month contract somewhere you need to do something as ridiculous as us and find a house that can make the income for you.
Language is still ahuge issue - I am just rubbish at learning it!.. this also limits my employment possibilities.

There is a huge sense of community out here in Austria but it does seem to be pretty much sewn-up already. It is very hard to 'get in with the locals' but we have made a few good Austrian friends. I doubt we have helped ourselves too much though as we have 2 kids we don't get out much in the evenings to 'network!'
There is quite a strong ex-pat community out here... although spread out.

When we were house hunting we were always looking for a property in the valley/villages. The idea of being remotely located in the mountains is very romantic but terribly impractical when you have school runs and need to go shopping etc.. etc..

Now then.. without sounding too hippy-like... the 'future' that so many seem to be waiting for, does end every second!

'GOOD LUCK'

After all it is free

We live in a small village close to Meribel but made the move in stages and only moved here full time in July. It was always a case of taking the opportunities when they came along. Like others we've had a lot of people tell us we've been lucky but it was more a case of taking the opportunities rather than putting up excuses and most importantly both wanting the same adventure. My husband was offered the chance of a two year secondment in Paris 12 years ago when our children were 6 and 3 years old. We thought it would be fun and would give the kids an adventure and we knew the French school holidays would be long enough for us to explore France and to maximise the thing we loved doing most - the skiing being being a "short" car journeyfrom the Alps.

My husband had no French at the time but did an immersion course and has worked in French ever since - tough at times but worth the effort. After 2 years he was offered another 2 and we said yes, I retrained and started working too to help keep us in France. After a 5th year we had to take the decision to move back to the UK or stop being expats and immerse ourselves completely into the French system, social security, tax etc. We didn't feel we were done in France and although it was tough sometimes we were skiing more and had an eye on the next move alpwards. We remortgaged our house in the UK to buy a house in the outskirts of Paris, then sold the house in the UK and bought a "maison secondaire" in a small village close to Meribel as by now our kids were hooked on the whole Alpine lifestyle. We've owned our holiday house for six years and enjoyed having family and friends here throughout the year and watching our boys grow up loving the mountains. Then our lives shifted again earlier this year and presented another opportunity. My husband had changed job six years ago and was now either travelling or working from home so with the agreement of his company was able to move away from the Paris office. Our eldest son finished school this year and wanted to go to uni in the UK and our youngest son wanted more sport/more skiing so we sold the house near Paris and have moved permanently to the Alps. Our youngest son wanted to carry on his education in English so he applied for a sports/ski scholarship to a boarding school in and was accepted, not something we could have ever imagined one of our children doing 12 years ago.

We have no idea how long we will live here but we are enjoying it, we get on well with our French neighbours and have a good social life having been around for the past six years albeit part time. Most of our friends think we're nuts but it works for our family at this point in time and when it doesn't work anymore we'll do something about it. There have definitely been tough times especially with the education system and the language but we invested the effort and it's been worth it.

Good luck with your own adventures wherever they take you Very Happy

the_doc, do you have any contacts for the superyachts thing? I did my Day Skipper this summer and would love to find crewing work next summer (it's the same qualification as Watch Leader for bigger boats)

Help!!

How did you end up where you are now?

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