Need advice for working a ski season in France

CharlzHub

CharlzHub

Active member
Howdy NS, I need some euro-skiing tips

I'm moving to Europe in May to spend the summer travelling, then am planning on working a ski season in France. Looking for recommendations of resorts to apply at and/or job options that people have worked in and enjoyed. Would need to be somewhere that offers staff accommodation. The dream job would be park crew but I feel like that's pretty unrealistic.

Cheers gang
 
The "easiest" way to find a job if you don't speak french, is in ski shop and try to focus on ski resort with a majority of foreign tourists ex : Chamonix, Morzine, Val d'isere, Meribel, Courchevel, Val Thorens. In those shop ski resorts, there is often one of the staff who is not speaking french (often someone from the UK or Scandinavia). Often the job in ski resort in france coming with staff accommodation. But if you want to be hire, they will ask for some work experience in ski industry.
 
topic:CharlzHub said:
Howdy NS, I need some euro-skiing tips

I'm moving to Europe in May to spend the summer travelling, then am planning on working a ski season in France. Looking for recommendations of resorts to apply at and/or job options that people have worked in and enjoyed. Would need to be somewhere that offers staff accommodation. The dream job would be park crew but I feel like that's pretty unrealistic.

Cheers gang
Click to expand...

research the culture of the French so you don't upset the French people, and learn the basics of French, also work in one of the well-known resorts so you don't have to be fluent in French to communicate
 
14593982:Dobbyda said:
research the culture of the French so you don't upset the French people, and learn the basics of French, also work in one of the well-known resorts so you don't have to be fluent in French to communicate
Click to expand...

According to my french teacher
 
cheers, I am learning french at the moment and will also be spending heaps of time there prior to the season starting, so the language and culture part of it shouldnt be too much of an issue hopefully
 
Hey man,

I've worked in a few French resorts (I'm English). The big barrier is having the right to work there - do you already have this or are you in need of someone to sponsor you?

The good news is most jobs come with housing, even though it is generally a dinky old apartment. It will also actually be in the resort, not somewhere like Queenstown in NZ. Even better, French resorts heavily rely on tourism from Benelux, Scandinavia, and Britain. This means there are English speakers everywhere, expat communities, and plenty of people will be willing to hire you even if you don't speak French. Sadly, the resort itself like won't be willing to do this.

Personally, I recommend working in a big resort like Tignes-VD, Three Valleys, L2A, or ADH. If you work at a bar or apres bar it is common to only speak English (and cater mainly to English speaking guests), and the hours work well for skiing. Look for somewhere not owned/managed by a local/frenchman, they're more likely to put up with you and have a clientele who don't speak French. Don't get me wrong, you ought to learn French, but for years English teenagers have done gap yahs and come back not speaking a word.

Let me know if you have any resort specific questions!

**This post was edited on Feb 28th 2024 at 2:25:14am

**This post was edited on Feb 28th 2024 at 2:27:17am

**This post was edited on Feb 28th 2024 at 2:28:20am
 
I like Monêtier-Les-Bains, small town but part of a good size ski resort Serre-Chevalier, also not so far from the border of Italy. We had good snow this winter. The people are nice and speak multiple languages.
 
topic:CharlzHub said:
Howdy NS, I need some euro-skiing tips

I'm moving to Europe in May to spend the summer travelling, then am planning on working a ski season in France. Looking for recommendations of resorts to apply at and/or job options that people have worked in and enjoyed. Would need to be somewhere that offers staff accommodation. The dream job would be park crew but I feel like that's pretty unrealistic.

Cheers gang
Click to expand...

Howdy, have you been able to learn anything more on this ?

I'm looking to do something similar so would be cool to know if you've made any progress.

Currently sites look like they only have Chalet Host(s) spot or general maintenance crew spots available.
 
14615287:ColtonK said:
Howdy, have you been able to learn anything more on this ?

I'm looking to do something similar so would be cool to know if you've made any progress.

Currently sites look like they only have Chalet Host(s) spot or general maintenance crew spots available.
Click to expand...

Howdy, yeah mate I sussed a job in Meribel working as a driver for a UK-based chalet company. It ended up being a bit of a who you know not what you know situation, I had a mate who worked for this company last year and I got her to slip me a recommendation for this season. Seems like a cool gig, I'd definitely go for a chalet host job if you can get one.

Also, apologies for this horrendously late reply, I've been backpacking Europe for the last 4 months and haven't opened NS once.
 
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