As the summer holiday season draws to a close in Europe, three Guardian readers tell how a formative trip they took in the past inspired them to make big changes in their lives.

“A train journey to the South of France inspired us to buy a train station and move in there”

Researcher Abby Kendrick, 40, was living in Coventry with her husband Alastair when they decided to take their honeymoon on the French railway in April 2022.

“We got married in December 2021,” says Kendrick. “When we met, I was living in London and he was living in Coventry. When he came to visit by train, we always celebrated with a cocktail at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel (a building connected to London’s St. Pancras station). We knew St. Pancras would be the place for our celebrations.

“We travelled through France by train and stayed overnight in Eus, the sunniest village in France. I have been to the Languedoc region before, but never so far south.

“I had seen a train station for sale in the Pyrénées-Orientales – why not go and have a look around and do something? I had originally made the appointment with the estate agent out of curiosity. It was a two-bedroom house, the old stationmaster’s apartment.

“One day while hiking, looking out over the Canigó (mountain) and listening to the rush of the white waters of the Têt river, I had the wonderful realisation that we could buy the resort and no longer have a mortgage – and be close to the sea and the ski resort. But that was just a possibility on paper and not something we could actually ‘do’, was it?

“When we looked at the station for the second time, the real estate agent asked us if we would make an offer. To which my husband replied, ‘I think so, yes!’ We were both just ready for a slower pace of life.

The couple negotiated the asking price of €158,000 (£134,000), eventually paid €133,000, bought the station two years ago and finally sold their Coventry home last week.

“My husband and I both worked as academics at a Russell Group university,” says Kendrick. “We both quit around the same time we closed the deal for our French station and have been doing more independent research since then. After two years of leave, we decided to move permanently.”

“The apartment is habitable, but we still need to modernize a few things, such as a new heating system. There is no longer a ticket office here, and the train that passes by here only stops six times a day. It’s really not a very busy line.”

“It’s quite a rural place – remote but not isolated. There are a lot of nice people here in the village and we’ve already made friends.

“We now want to improve our French and think about what the next few years might bring. We have been so lucky.”

“A ski instructor laid the foundation for a mature year abroad and changed our lives”

While on a skiing holiday in Meribel with his wife Alix, 58, in 2004, pensioner Martin Crowson, now 65, realised that his ski guide was an internationally known rugby commentator.

“It turned out he was taking a season off before an important rugby match. He was about my age and that gave me the idea to do the same. I had never thought about doing a mature year abroad, so to speak, in my 40s,” says Crowson.

“My career in PR and journalism was at a crossroads and I longed to do something different.

“My wife and I worked as chalet hosts in France the following year. We liked it so much that we worked in a private ski chalet for another year.”

In 2006, the couple decided to sell their house and bought a guest house in the Yorkshire Dales.

“We ran crime weekends there for 12 years and managed events from start to finish,” says Crowson. “I wrote the crime novels and was able to combine that with my work as a freelance writer. We made so many friends and experienced so many new things that we would never have experienced otherwise during that time.”

“Looking back, that trip and that conversation with that rugby reporter was the moment I decided to give it all up and that chance encounter completely changed the course of our lives. The guy is still a sports correspondent and will be completely unaware of the impact he had.”

“I walked 550 km through Spain and realized that I wanted to help people heal”

Around eight years after moving to the UK from South Africa to pursue a career in HR, 39-year-old Kerryn from the Isle of Wight found herself at a proverbial crossroads in May 2019.

“The career I had fought so hard to build and develop left me feeling burned out,” she says.

“Upon reflection, I realized that I was deeply unhappy about what was supposedly a ‘smart’ career move and had accepted a role that was in direct conflict with my personality. As a result, I withdrew from life and became unheard of by anyone around me.

“My twin sister Leanne was going on a pilgrimage through Spain, the 800-kilometer-long French Way of St. James, and my husband suggested that I accompany my sister on the trip.

“So, at the beginning of June, we boarded a bus and headed to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the starting point of the Camino Francés. Over the next month, we would walk over 550 km, crossing the Pyrenees, Roncesvalles, Pamplona, ​​​​Logroño, Burgos, León, Sarria and finally arriving in Santiago de Compostela (we skipped part of the way and took a bus).

“Over the course of the month, my twin and I experienced moments of joy (usually involving one-minute showers and noisy garbage trucks that always seemed to be there when we were trying to get rid of a story of great anguish), tears over lost love and career ambitions driven by societal pressure, arguments, and moments of awe and silence. I’m not the religious type, but an afternoon spent alone and quietly in one of Spain’s oldest monasteries has an effect on you.

“Throughout the trip, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I had always tried to help people wherever they needed help, and now I had a wake-up call.”

After returning to the UK, Kerryn decided to retrain as a Pilates instructor.

“To cut a long story short: After I injured myself pretty badly through a combination of long-distance running and horse riding, I started doing Pilates as part of my rehab,” she says.

“After the Camino, I signed up for a comprehensive Pilates course. Suddenly my world had colour again and I felt like my life was also gaining colour. I studied diligently – with a focus on the rehabilitation aspect, Pilates has become an integral part of certain population groups, including postpartum patients, people with lifelong illnesses and those who simply needed help.

“It’s been nearly five years now since I started my own Pilates business, and although there are days when it would be easier to be under the wing of a large corporation, the exhilaration of seeing my client’s success helps me take the comfort level off my eyes and see the real, genuine, positive difference I’m making in the world.”