I worked from the Alps for a week - here's where

We did not move to the mountains for months. A week was enough. My wife had holiday days left and I did not, so we made a deal: she would take the week off, I would bring the laptop, and we would both go to the Alps. We rented a place in the Val d'Anniviers, a quiet side valley of the Valais, and based ourselves in Grimentz, an old village of dark timber houses high above the valley floor.

The rhythm was simple. I worked through the day with a window full of peaks, still white with snow that spring. At lunch we walked out to a proper restaurant instead of eating at the desk. And the evenings, once the laptop closed, belonged to the mountains.

That last part is the whole idea. An after-work hike in a place like this is a real hike, not a stroll. One evening we went up to the reservoir at Lac de Moiry above Grimentz with a friend who had joined us: 18 kilometres and 700 metres of climbing. Another we went up the valley to Zinal and climbed the far side for the view back across, 11 kilometres and 700 metres, straight after work. On a tired day it was a leg-stretch above the village, 10 kilometres and 500 metres, and then dinner.

The work got done, and every day ended on a mountainside instead of a sofa. It was one of the nicest weeks we have ever had.

You do not need a sabbatical for this, or a month, or a job that lets you disappear. You need one week where the calendar bends, a valley with good trails and a couple of decent restaurants, and somewhere to sit with a laptop. Grimentz was ours. If your job can travel at all, try it once.