As the summer holiday season draws to a close in Europe, three Guardian readers tell how a transformative trip they have taken in the past inspired them to make major life changes.
‘A rail trip to the south of France made us buy and move into a train station’
Abby Kendrick, 40, a researcher, was living in Coventry with her husband, Alastair, when they decided to embark on a honeymoon on the French railway in April 2022.
“We got married in December 2021,” Kendrick says. “When we met, I lived in London and he in Coventry. We would always celebrate with a cocktail at St Pancras Renaissance hotel [a building connected to London’s St Pancras train station] when he came down on a train to visit. We knew St Pancras would be the venue for our celebrations.
“We travelled through France by train and stayed in Eus, the sunniest village in France. I’d been to the Languedoc region, but never that far south.
“I had seen a train station for sale in the Pyrénées-Orientales – why not go take a look, for something to do? Initially, I made the appointment with the estate agent just to be nosy. It was a two-bed house, the old station master’s quarters.
“With views of the Canigó [mountain], and the sound of the white water of the River Têt, one day out walking I had the wonderful realisation that we could buy the station and be mortgage free – and be close to both sea and ski. But surely this could only ever be a possibility on paper, not something we could actually ‘do’?
“On viewing the station for a second time, the estate agent asked us if we would be making an offer. To which my husband replied, ‘I think so, yes!’ We were both just ready for a slower pace of life.
The couple haggled over the asking price of €158,000 (£134,000), eventually paying €133,000, bought the station two years ago and finally sold their house in Coventry last week.
“My husband and I both worked as academics in a Russell Group university,” Kendrick says. “We both quit around the same time as sealing the deal on our French train station and have been doing more independent research work since. After two years of holidaying, we decided to make the move permanent.
“The place is habitable, although there is a bit of updating for us to do, such as new heating. There’s no ticket office here any more, the train that goes past just stops six times per day. It’s really not a busy line.
“It’s quite a rural spot – remote, but not isolated. There are lots of nice people here in the village and we’ve made friends already.
“We want to improve our French now and are working out what the next few years might hold. We’ve been so lucky.”
‘A skiing instructor planted the seed for a mature gap year, and changed our lives’
During a skiing holiday in Meribel with his wife, Alix, 58, in 2004, Martin Crowson, now 65 and retired, realised that his ski guide was an internationally well-known rugby commentator.
“It turned out he was taking time out for a season, prior to an important rugby gig. He was roughly my age, and it got me thinking about doing the same. I had never thought about doing a mature gap year, so to speak, in my 40s,” Crowson says.
“My career in PR and journalism was at a crossroads and I was crying out to do something different.
“My wife and I ended up working as chalet hosts in France the next year. We enjoyed it so much, we did another year at a private ski chalet.”
In 2006, the couple decided to sell their house and bought a guest house in the Yorkshire Dales.
“We ran murder mystery weekends and fully catered events there for 12 years,” Crowson says. “I was writing the murder mysteries, and was able to combine this with working as a freelance copywriter. We made so many friends and experienced so many new things we normally never would have in that period.
“Looking back, that trip, and that conversation with that rugby reporter, was the moment I decided to pack it all in, and that chance meeting completely changed the trajectory of our life. The guy is still a sports correspondent, and will be totally unaware of the impact he has had.”
‘I walked 550km across Spain and realised I wanted to help people heal’
About eight years after moving to the UK from South Africa to develop a career in HR, Kerryn, 39, from the Isle of Wight, found herself at a proverbial crossroads in May 2019.
“The career I had long fought to develop and progress within had left me feeling burnt out,” she says.
“On reflection I realised that, having been deeply unhappy with a supposedly ‘smart’ career move, I’d accepted a role that was in direct conflict with who I was as a person and as a result found myself hibernating from life and going radio silent on all those around me.
“My twin sister, Leanne, was embarking on a pilgrimage across Spain, the 800km French Camino trail, and my husband suggested I join my sister on the trip.
“So in early June, we boarded a bus and headed to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the start of Camino Francés. Over the coming month we would walk over 550km trekking across the Pyrenees, Roncesvalles, Pamplona, Logroño, Burgos, León, Sarria and finally arriving in Santiago de Compostela (we cut part of the trail out and took a bus).
“Over the month my twin and I shared moments of mirth (generally involving one-minute showers and noisy bin trucks that seemed to be ever present anytime we attempted to offload a story of great anguish), tears over lost love and career aspirations driven by societal pressures, arguments, and moments of awe, and silence. I’m not the religious type, but an afternoon spent sitting alone and quietly in one of Spain’s oldest monasteries has an effect on one.
“Throughout the journey I kept trying to figure out what I was meant to be doing with my life. I had always endeavoured to help people wherever there was need, and I had a wake-up moment.”
On her return to the UK, Kerryn decided to retrain as a pilates coach.
“Long story short, after injuring myself pretty badly through a cocktail of long-distance running and riding horses, I came to pilates as part of my rehab,” she says.
“Following the Camino I enrolled in a comprehensive pilates course. Suddenly my world had colour again and I felt so did my life. I studied fervently – focusing on the rehab aspect pilates has become well associated with and on particular populations, including postnatal clients, those affected by lifelong conditions, and those who just needed help.
“It has now been almost five years since I started my own pilates company and although there are days where it would be easier to be under the wing of a large corporate, the highs of seeing your client succeed help me remove the scales of comfort from my eyes and see the real, proper, positive difference I make in the world.”
