When you suddenly find yourself in the Finnish solitude between forests and lakes in a place where only French is spoken, you become curious. Marlène Pioteryry is immediately ready for a chat. After completing her studies, the 36-year-old Frenchwoman decided to discover the world instead of teaching in French classrooms. She travelled extensively by bike throughout Europe, from the North Cape to Gibraltar, from Finland to Greece, stopping off in Ukraine. "In between my travels, I ended up spending a winter season here in Hossa in the Finnish region of Kainuu to earn money. It was already clear to me then that I wanted to come back. This place was already in my heart."
The business in Hossa belongs to a French company that offers outdoor holidays worldwide. It started about 15 years ago when a Frenchman offered the first husky sledding tours for French tourists. Today, the company includes accommodation, a restaurant, a husky farm and a tour operator offering complete weekly programmes, mainly for the Finnish winter.
Marlène was looking for a job that matched her values. The French company was looking for a hotel manager for a location in Canada. "I did that for several winters. Then I was asked if I wanted to manage Hossa." So Marlène is back in her favourite place ‘with great responsibility’, as she says herself.
This is because the restaurant, husky farm, travel agency and equipment from snowmobiles to canoes are now also part of the business.
‘We are a team of 30 employees here in winter and 15 in summer,’ says the boss. "And we all have to stick together here, otherwise it won't work in solitude. The guests see that we work together, eat together and maybe even drink and laugh together after work, even at -40 degrees." Marlène is convinced that the tourists also learn for life here and take some of these experiences home with them into their everyday lives. She talks about former guests who now work and live here, at least temporarily.
Marlène sees her job in Hossa as organising everything so that the business can run without a manager while maintaining the same level of quality. There are always new employees, many of whom only come for a season. ‘The challenge is to organise it so that the knowledge and experience is passed on and new employees don't have to learn from the same mistakes over and over again.’ Marlène explains that she spends a lot of time writing manuals and instructions and documenting work processes. ‘We are constantly working on improvements for our employees and for our guests.’ She pays particular attention to safety regulations in all areas of work. ‘We live so far away from medical care that this is fundamental.’
Staff is a major challenge in this area. There are hardly any people from the region who work here. ‘I try to make the jobs so attractive that people are willing to come even for just five months.’ This summer, two young Finnish women who speak French are working at the company. ‘I'm very pleased about that, but otherwise the majority of our employees come from France.’ If you want to work here, you need to know that there aren't many leisure opportunities apart from the endless nature and that your colleagues are often your only social contacts on site.
Marlène is so enthusiastic about the magic of the place right on the lake. The oldest rock carvings in northern Finland in Hossa are a sign that this has long been a place of great attraction. The restaurant and main building is located in a 50-year-old wooden house with a rich local history. It was the meeting place for the local community when Hossa had more inhabitants. ‘Maybe we can become that again for the few people who still live in the neighbourhood?’ she asks herself. She also sees a lot of potential for this place. ‘Hossa is not just a place for outdoor activities in winter, we could also offer courses and seminars here for coaching, yoga or nature photography, for example.’ She is already working on concepts for these ideas.
Marlène admits that it's a 24/7 job for her. "But that also suits me. I do what I do 100 per cent. I do it with enthusiasm and conviction. And when I've had enough, I quit, take my bike and move on. But the job here is so big, I'll probably have to stay for a few years."
