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Description
We're a Dutch-Brazilian family living in Saint-Jorioz, a small village on the southern shore of Lake Annecy in the French Alps. Daniela (Brazilian) and Hans (Dutch-Brazilian) live here with our two young children and our cats, who are growing up moving between Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English at home — so any extra language and cultural exchange tends to be genuinely interesting to them.
Both of us run organizations in the mental health and behavioral science space — Daniela leads a psychology clinic, Hans runs a research lab and a related startup — so the household is busy, international, and full of people coming and going.
Our house has a pool, air conditioning, and solar panels — comfortable in summer and reasonably sustainable year-round. The lake is about a 25-minute walk away and considered one of the cleanest in Europe — great for swimming, paddleboarding, or just lying on the grass in summer. The mountains start at our doorstep: easy hiking in the warm months, skiing in winter (resorts 30–45 minutes away). Annecy itself, sometimes called "the Venice of the Alps," is a 15-minute drive, with its medieval old town, canals, weekly markets, and excellent food scene. Geneva is about an hour away, Lyon two, and Italy isn't much further.
We're a warm, easygoing household and enjoy meeting people from different places. We hope you'll feel at home here.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Interests
Technology
Pets
Politics / Social justice
LGBTQ
Events & social
Culture
Languages
History
Cooking & food
Books
Blogging
Animals
Yoga / Wellness
Water sports
Outdoor activities
Nature
Mountain
Dancing
Cycling
Beach
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Cultural exchange is honestly one of the main reasons we're drawn to hosting. Our household is already a mix of cultures and languages — Brazilian, Dutch, French — and we love adding to that.
What we can share:
* Languages. Between the family, we speak Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English daily, and we're happy to help you practice any of them (or just chat). Our kids in particular love when guests bring a new language into the mix.
* Our work, if you're curious. Both of us work in mental health and behavioral science — Daniela with a clinical practice, Hans with research and a startup. If those topics interest you, we're always up for a conversation about them. No expectation either way.
What we hope to learn:
We genuinely enjoy hearing how people from other places think — about food, family, work, what makes a good life. We've lived in several countries ourselves and know how much a stay somewhere new can shift your perspective. We hope our kids get some of that too: meeting people from different backgrounds, hearing different languages, learning that the world is much bigger than their village.
Social side:
Saint-Jorioz has a friendly village feel, and Annecy is lively year-round — markets, festivals, lakeside events in summer, Christmas markets and ski culture in winter. We're happy to bring you along to things we're doing, introduce you to friends and neighbors, and help you find your own footing if you'd rather explore independently. Family dinners are usually shared, often multilingual, and rarely quiet.
Help
We have a mix of ongoing projects and smaller tasks where an extra pair of hands would make a real difference. Depending on your interests and skills, you might help with:
* Painting, both inside the house and outside.
* Garden help, and potentially reshaping parts of the garden. Regular upkeep (weeding, pruning, planting), plus the chance to help us rethink certain areas. If you have a gardening or landscaping background, even better.
* Small fixes and repairs around the house and yard. Things come up regularly: a basket that needs welding, a bit of the kids' playground that needs patching, a bike light to reattach, small carpentry tasks. If you're handy and enjoy that kind of variety, there's always something.
A note on how we're approaching this: we're new to Workaway and still figuring out what arrangement works best for everyone. Between our jobs and the kids, we travel fairly often, so part of what we're exploring is whether some of the work could happen while we're away — alongside time when we're home and can work together, share meals, and show you around. We don't have this fully figured out, and we'd want to shape it together with whoever joins us, based on what feels comfortable and fair on both sides.
What we can say is that we'd be open and communicative about it, plan plenty of overlap at the start so we can get to know each other, and make sure you always have what you need — materials, clear instructions, a contact for questions, and a comfortable home with the pool and surroundings to enjoy in your downtime.
If you're someone who values independence, is comfortable in your own company in a quiet village setting, and is up for figuring out a good rhythm together, we'd love to hear from you.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
Portuguese: Fluent
Spanish: Intermediate
German: Beginner
Accommodation
A beautiful guest room (bed for 2) with a view on the mountains!
If we are at home, we are happy to provide three meals a day in exchange for up to 25 hours a week of help (with 2 full days off) or provide a stipend in case we are not at home.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.
Space for parking camper vans
This host can provide space for campervans.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
My animals / pets
Cotta
Curie
Photos
