The threat of a worldwide lockdown may have put others off the idea of opening a chalet in a different country, but Co Tyrone man Plunkett McCullagh saw only a long-term opportunity.
Born in Greencastle, Plunkett's work in FinTech took him to the Far East before coming back home to help his family with their businesses as the pandemic hit in 2020.
It was Plunkett who found a new direction for the entrepreneurial family - moving from the foothold of the Sperrin Mountains in Greencastle to the slopes of the northern Alps.
Read more: Food review: The toastie bandwagon still going strong in Augher
With time on his hands and having visited a friend in previous years who had moved to Austria to work at a ski lodge, Plunkett saw the opportunity to marry his love of business with his passion for the outdoors.
Using the brief windows for travel allowed by the coronavirus restrictions, he was able to find a property, secure a mortgage, set up the company website and on April 30th 2021, he was in France to receive the keys to what would become the Heyday Chalet.
"The pandemic gave a lot of people pause for thought and time to think about whether what they were doing with their lives was making them happy," he told Belfast Live.
"I had these three questions, where do I want to be in 20 years, what am I good at and what do I like doing?
"And I was able to answer that with a Venn diagram with the chalet in the middle really."
Family has been a key part of the business with Plunkett's sister Maeve moving out to Morzine to help manage the chalet.
And his other family members have intermittently spent time at the chalet as well.
"It seemed like a pretty good investment opportunity, we're five brothers and sisters who all love skiing and biking and being in the mountains.
"Even from a family point of view, even if it wasn't a business, it would be a pretty good place for us all to be!"
The chalet has a modern twist, with the space not just being used to house skiing and mountain biking fans, but also those looking to work remotely from a more scenic and calming location.
Plunkett's previous experience in FinTech and the more global move towards remote working offered an opportunity to take advantage of the growing trend.
It wasn't without its difficulties as in the early days, weak internet speeds were a drawback, but using Elon Musk's Starlink satellites, the chalet was eventually brought up to speed.
Since then, the office and co-working space has been used by professionals from the financial, legal, marketing and journalism sectors.
"It's a very kind of communal thing, a big part of the value of the chalet is the people that you meet when you get here", he said.
"Generally I think being in the mountains is a good filter for people, they can have a glass of red wine by the fire at night, they can go out and take advantage of the activities on their days off and that sort of refreshes people for their work as well.
"We've had people who have come and stayed there and when they've left they've met up in places like London to keep that sort of link going."
Another draw for visitors is Panda, the canine concierge who "makes the house a home", according to Plunkett.
An Australian shepherd dog, Panda helps to greets the guests and make them feel at ease in their surroundings.
"Morzine is such a good place for dogs, over 50% of full-time residents here have dogs," he said.
"We have a guestbook where people write us a message when they leave and in every single message, Panda gets a mention alongside myself and Maeve."
It has been a journey form the Far East to the remote countryside of Greencastle and now to the pristine slopes of Morzine, but Plunkett said it has felt like a natural progression from childhoods spent skiing and biking, to an early adulthood spent helping in the family's bar and shop.
"It's not a route that I had definitively planned to get there, but it's always something I've dreamed of, alongside owning my own business," he said.
It seems that dream has now snowballed and become a reality, in the heady heights of the French Alps.
Read more: Co Tyrone men behind group set up to tackle suicide in NI
Read more: Market Place Europe announce series of summer markets across Northern Ireland
