Spending winters on the road gives Nicholas Scott more sunny summer days to be with his family

Most people have a career in Britain before they even think about moving abroad to live. It wasn’t like that for Nicholas Scott. In fact he’s never had a permanent job in his home country, though that hasn’t stopped him working his way up to a senior position with a British holiday company. Nicholas, his wife Helen and their two year old daughter Zara live in the small coastal town of Begur, on the Costa Brava, where he has spent most of his working life.

Nicholas trained as a chef in his native Cardiff, but he never got the chance to pursue a full-time career in the kitchen. He and Helen met when they worked as reps at a campsite on the Côte d’Azur in 1992 and they returned for four more summer seasons – though it took them three years to get together as a couple.

In 1996 the pair were promoted as joint managers of a campsite at Calella de Palafrugell. Nicholas was taken on full time by the company, Siesta Holidays International, with a maintenance brief for all the campsites along the Costa Brava and into the Côte d’Azur. He later became a technical director. Meanwhile, Helen was working as an air stewardess for Dutch airline KLM, and the couple set up permanent home near Calella.

Things changed in 2005, when Zara arrived. Helen gave up work and eventually they found a house in Begur – complete with garden for their daughter.

“The house needed quite a lot doing to it, but I’m very familiar with maintenance,” says Nicholas. “I seem to have spent most of my evenings and weekends working on it but we’re getting there now and I’ve even put a pool in.”

All this suggests the Scotts are staying put on the Costa Brava – something Nicholas confirms. “We’ve made our life here. We love being in this area, we have lots of friends and Zara is happy too.
“She goes to nursery where she speaks Catalan and she’s learning a little Spanish. Helen and I speak Spanish but it’s all English at home – though we are learning Catalan ourselves because otherwise we won’t be able to help her with her homework!”

One of the benefits of living in Girona province is that you’re close to everything you could want: the glamour and possibilities of Barcelona are 90 minutes away, the lovely city of Girona is an hour down the road, then there are the beaches, the Pyrenees and skiing and even southern France.

Read the full story in our April 2008 issue.