In March 2020, Ariane de Bonvoisin was skiing in Verbier, Switzerland, with her husband and her son. A native of New York, she had skied there since childhood and her family had a chalet in the village, but she had never considered making it a more permanent residence — until Covid gave them the opportunity.
After some back and forth between the federal authorities and the local commune about whether foreign visitors could stay, the government agreed to keep ski resorts open for the 2020-21 season. Bonvoisin and her husband decided to sit out the pandemic in Verbier — she could run her executive coaching business remotely, her husband could consult. But they faced a pressing question: how would they educate their son?
“I had seen kids from the local school skiing before and [happened to] visit just before Covid,” says Bonvoisin when we speak by phone. “Then I was caught there and tried to hybrid- and home-school my son . . . I would see the kids walking around Verbier and always thought, ‘Wow, what an amazing childhood!’”
There was not much choice for international students, as might be expected in a village of just over 3,100 permanent residents. Those smartly uniformed kids she had admired turned out to be at Verbier International School (VIS), founded in 2011 with a focus on outdoor education for primary pupils.
