Val d'Isere Seasonaire Experience

In December 2018 I flew out to Geneva to become a seasonaire for the next 5 months. I was 18 years old, on my gap year, and this was to be my longest stay away from home so far. In the months leading up to it I was really excited; I felt so lucky to have landed a job in one of the biggest ski resorts in the French Alps. As the departure date drew nearer my excitement turned to fear as I read more about Val d'Isere and learnt of the people I was going to be living and working with through Facebook. I discovered that Val d'Isere was known for having the "liveliest nightlife in the Alps". Nightlife wasn't something I'd even considered when applying for seasonaire positions - I was just interested in the snow sports. If I'd thought about it I might have tried to choose a smaller resort!

December rolled around before I knew it and suddenly I was at Edinburgh airport with my enormous suitcase (though still smaller than anyone else's as it turned out). I remember my flight was delayed so when I arrived in Geneva I was expecting to be the last to get there. I was supposed to meet the other employees and my boss John in the arrivals lounge but when I got there I couldn't find anyone. I tried texting then phoning John. My phone had very weak signal in the airport so eventually I worked up the courage to go to the help desk and ask to use their phone to phone him - he didn't pick up. At this point I might have been panicking just a tiny bit. After what seemed like ages I got a text from John saying he'd been delayed on the road and was still driving down from the resort. That was a relief. They hadn't all been waiting for me or, worse still, left without me. I returned to the meeting place, looked around again for the other employees who were supposedly waiting there too but, not seeing any likely looking groups, I eventually just stood by myself, feeling nervous. A while later John arrived and together we found the others who had been sitting in a corner behind a pillar - no wonder I hadn't found them sooner.

As it turned out there were only two other employees at the airport - Tom and Charlotte. Two more were already in the resort having arrived early and one had lost his passport and wouldn't be arriving until the following week. Charlotte had been up really early so was tired and slept for most the drive up the mountain. Tom was the opposite and sat in the front of the van talking virtually nonstop the entire way! I did my best to talk as much as possible which equates to not very much given the combination of hardly being able to get a word in edgeways and me not being very talkative at the best of times.

We quickly learnt that our accommodation was to be in two apartments. These turned out to each be one room containing one or two bunk beds, a sofa, an oven, a fridge and a couple of cupboards, plus a bathroom. They were the smallest apartments they could possibly have given us. I wasn't too bothered by this - I had prepared myself for the worst and that was what we got, but I think the others were a bit shocked. They'd had ideas of having their own rooms in a log chalet with wood burning stoves.

I was happy to be put in the two person apartment with Charlotte who thankfully decided that she was too tired to go out that night. Though the flat wasn't great, the experience definitely taught me how live in a very small space with limited things, to tolerate different people's living habits and to appreciate the space that I do have - lessons which have served me well since.

I was, however, persuaded go out the second night where I ordered my first drink in a bar and went to my first nightclub. I didn't like my drink very much (it was vodka and lemonade but I don't like lemonade so of course I wasn't going to like it) but it was still nice to just chat with the others and get to know them a bit. When they went to the nightclub afterwards I hated it from the moment I stepped through the door. It was packed with people, music was blaring and I felt incredibly uncomfortable. I left again pretty quickly and I don't remember if I went home by myself or if anyone else left at that point too. It was a world I knew nothing about and it was very intimidating! The others helped me out though and I realised they weren't as scary as I'd thought, just from a different world to me!

Starting work the morning after arrival went relatively smoothly. The nice thing was that we were all living together (or next door), we were all around the same age and we were all starting a new job away from home so instantly we had some sort of bond and I felt like a part of a team. It was so much more than just a job - we were together 24/7. For work we got up around 7am, took the bus from La Daille up to the centre of Val d'Isere and walked to the office. As far as I remember, most of the first few days were spent training. We were taught what to bring with us each morning, what was expected of us, how the rotas worked and of course how to clean. We were given our uniforms (already well worn black polo shirts and fleeces) and our rucksacks full of cleaning supplies. We learnt the disappointing news that we wouldn't be given our lift passes for another two weeks as they planned to work us so much that there "wouldn't be any time for skiing". I found this particularly unfair as the lift pass was effectively part of our wages and we were supposed to have a day and a half off each week. By not giving us our passes for another fortnight we would be missing out on the quiet slopes and instead be getting out just as all the holiday makers arrived for Christmas.

The first few weeks went by fast enough. We worked long hours, well over the hours specified in our contracts. We eventually got our lift passes and got out on the slopes but only 1-2 days a week. We all suffered from sore hands - a combination of the dry climate and the harsh cleaning sprays. We had a few issues with our apartment door not closing/opening and sometimes had to climb out of the window to get out or put a suitcase in the way to keep the door shut at night. They eventually came to look at it after we complained for the first 10 days or so. We weren't big fans of our boss but we didn't see her often so it wasn't too important. It wasn't the best job but I was happy: I was surprised to find I got on well with all the others, despite being so different to them. We complained together which made everything seem better and the thought that we might get less work once the Christmas rush was over kept us going. I enjoyed skiing with the boys, especially with Ben who was about the same level of skiing as me. I came to enjoy the apres ski, learnt what drinks to order in a bar and how to dance in ski boots. I grew more confident in my cleaning abilities as I learnt to navigate the resort and the buildings I was assigned to and I got better at handling the time pressures.

Christmas was upon us before we knew it and it was a very different Christmas to usual. We worked Christmas Eve but were given Christmas day off. Our boss gave us some kind of sausage as a Christmas present which everyone else enjoyed. We went out for staff drinks at an open mic night where our boss's husband was performing and exchanged secret santa presents. I got given some cheese from the market which was delicious. It was a good night. On Christmas day Ben made breakfast for everyone - bacon for everyone else and granola for me. It was the perfect sunny day and I went out skiing with the boys. I remember there being people throwing chocolates up to those on the chair lift in Tignes and there were Christmas carols playing around the resort. At the end of the day we joined up with the others at the apres bar Cocorico. The rest of the evening was spent drinking wine, dancing to Christmas music and eating curry. These are some of my favourite memories from my gap year.

And that's more or less where my semi-successful experience as a Val d'Isere seasonaire comes to an end. Things went downhill rapidly as we entered 2019. In the first few days of January our company announced that it would be doing 1 month reviews with each of us. We all filled in feedback forms on how we were finding the job and the experience so far and how we felt we were getting on. I know several of the others wrote a lot of complaints on those forms, especially about the extra hours we were working, but the feedback I gave was largely positive because I don't deal well with confrontation! One person, Isla, actually quit at that point because she hated the job so much. I was the last to be called in and I was told that, following the one month trial period, they had decided I wasn't a good fit for their team. This obviously came as a bit of a shock to me, having received no prior indicators that they were unhappy with my work or that I was doing any worse than anyone else. I didn't turn up late or hungover in the mornings, I didn't take extra breaks or dawdle between buildings and I did always do my best with the jobs I was given. They gave me a list of reasons why they were firing me: at first my cleaning hadn't been very good but they admitted I had improved (I don't think my cleaning received any more criticism than anyone else's and at my last review John was unable to find a single fault with my work), there had been some instances of forgotten keys (there was only one time that was in part my fault) and finally (their main reason), I was not able to work independently (after that I decided not to pay in the tip I'd received for a solo clean that morning). My boss said that because I hadn't actually done anything wrong she would recommend me to her friend who also ran a cleaning company if I wanted to look for another job in Val d'Isere.

When I got fired I didn't want to tell anyone. I mean, it was a bit embarrassing really. But I knew I had to because everyone was going to find out in the end anyway. As it turned out, sharing the news made me feel a lot better. At first the others didn't believe me and thought I was joking which, to be honest, is kind of how I felt when I was told too. Once I'd convinced them of the reality, they were suitably indignant and enraged on my behalf. In fact two of them ended up resigning in protest, leaving the company with only two of its original employees and forcing them to advertise for two new ones. I later discovered that the company had had a series of cancellations so needed less staff and that was why they had to fire someone. I guess I was just unlucky.

In the aftermath of the news, I was left to work out what I was going to do with myself for the next few months. At that point I was just starting to fully enjoy life in Val d'Isere and I was not ready to leave yet. One of my main problems was that everything I had there was tied to the job - my accommodation, my ski hire, my lift pass, my friends, my income. Beyond that little bubble I had nothing. I was given one week's notice to leave my accommodation. I started looking for a new job immediately. I went to the tourist office to update and print out my CV, I sent out emails in French and in English, advertised on Facebook, went into all the hotels I could see but to no avail. I also started looking for private accommodation and quickly learnt that it was very limited at this point in the season. The only lead I had to go on was the friend my boss had recommended me to. It wasn't ideal because it didn't include accommodation but it was all I had so I went along to an interview and was given some trial shifts.

Unfortunately my new boss turned out to be much the same as my old one. It was clear why they were friends. She was terrible at replying to messages but eventually I was given a time to go in for my first shift. I met Dara, an 18 year old from Ireland who was to be my cleaning partner. Surprisingly I got on really well with him and I found we had a lot in common - we were both there for the skiing not the nightlife and we were both learning French. He went on to do WOOFing on a farm in Southern France, much like I did through Workaway. I had more in common with him than with anyone else I'd met in Val d'Isere so far. I learnt from him that the management of this new company was not a lot better than my previous one and that work hours were varied and unpredictable. I didn't mind the job but I still needed a place to live. For a while I continued to live illegally in my old accommodation but I knew I would cause trouble for the others if anyone found out about it. By then Isla had moved into a one bedroom apartment with her cousin so I slept on their floor for a while but again, it wasn't a permanent solution and I felt like a burden to them. I bought some second hand skis and boots for €5 each and a temporary lift pass so that I could at least do some skiing while I figured things out. I was pushed well out of my comfort zone skiing off piste with Dara but I had an amazing time and met a whole load of new people.

After about three weeks I found a bed in an apartment available to rent for the rest of the season and I was simultaneously offered a contract with the new cleaning company who was happy with my standard of cleaning. I was also offered a place in a ski chalet in Switzerland that I'd applied for through Workaway. I now had a difficult decision to make. On the one hand I was already in Val d'Isere, I had friends and a potential job and place to stay - moving to Switzerland would be another dive into the unknown and I would have to get myself there. On the other hand, I didn't love the job (turns out I don't really enjoy cleaning that much), the hours I would be given were unlikely to even cover my rent, I would be working for employer I didn't like and by that point I had skied most of the runs in the Espace-Killy area. After much deliberation I made my decision, handed in my notice and booked my train to Switzerland for the 27th of January! Looking back, I am so glad I made that choice as it allowed me to have many wonderful and unexpected experiences. I may well have also had a good time if I had stayed in Val but it wouldn't have been nearly so much of an adventure. Overall, not quite the winter I was expecting but it gave me a taste of the seasonaire lifestyle and plenty of new life experiences!

#skiing #gapyear #seasonaire #france #travel