Move here
Move to the Southern French Alps
Annecy's sunshine without Annecy's prices or traffic. A real year-round town at 1,326 m — not a resort that closes in May — with a UNESCO old town, two ski areas at the door, and the Écrins out the back. Here is the honest pathway to making it home.
Why people are looking south
- The sun. Briançon claims around 300 days of sunshine a year — the brightest corner of the French Alps.
- The prices. Property here runs at a fraction of comparable Haute-Savoie resort towns, for the same mountains.
- The trains are coming. A €367M rail upgrade ahead of 2030 will cut travel times from Marseille and Lyon by roughly 30%.
- It's a real town. Schools, hospital, cinema, year-round life — not a seasonal resort shell.
One honest note on scope: the Southern Alps are bigger than any single valley, and this site's coverage grows outward from the corner we know street by street — Briançon and its valleys. The Queyras, the Embrunais and Serre-Ponçon, the Ubaye and the Mercantour will follow as we can verify each one first-hand.
The pathway
01 — Read the honest version first
Skip the brochure. These ten guides are the move, in the order the questions actually come up — including the three nobody likes answering: housing, jobs, and what February feels like.
- Living in Briançon: an honest local's guide
- Where exactly should you live? Briançon vs Serre Chevalier villages vs Vallouise vs Guillestre (coming soon)
- The year-round housing playbook — renting & finding a home in a zone tendue (coming soon)
- Moving to France when you're not EU: the honest 2026 visa guide (coming soon)
- Cost of living in Briançon: real numbers from a resident (coming soon)
- The October test: seasons, off-season and winter, honestly (coming soon)
- Remote work from the Southern Alps: internet, tax and admin (coming soon)
- Buying property in the Hautes-Alpes: a resident's guide for foreign buyers (coming soon)
- Moving with kids: schools, ski-études and family reality (coming soon)
- Can you actually earn a living here? Jobs and dual careers (coming soon)
Getting here for a visit first? Turin airport to Briançon covers the logistics.
02 — Test-drive it before you decide
A relocation decided from photos is a gamble. Come live and work from Briançon for a month — real winter or real summer — before you commit to anything.
Test-drive Briançon for a month →
03 — Settle, with local help that speaks your language
When you're ready, we introduce you to vetted local professionals — estate agents, and the practical contacts that make a move work — including the ones who genuinely handle English. One introduction, with your consent, no spam. That's the whole deal.