How we did it
Having left the UK in the early nineties, and having spent 3 years living and working in The Hague, (Netherlands or Holland), we arrived in our little village by accident after a year spent in the Mediterranean sunshine near Narbonne.
We were looking for somewhere to rent, that would enable a once a week visit to the Geneva area, and that would permit us to work from home. Many trips to the region, and days of traipsing around estate agents, and we saw an isolated house pictured in a window. It looked ideal, so we went in to enquire. The immobilier (estate agent) was less than keen and spent a good half hour trying to put us off. We eventually persuaded her to give us directions to this remote mountain village, and duly set off to look at the house. It was January and snow was lying quite thickly, so the climb to 2000 feet was quite memorable.
In brief, we found the house, liked the exterior, made arrangements to view; a few weeks later we were tenants! Not long after the move we were sitting on the balcony eating lunch in Spring sunshine.