Niki Benjamin had travelled to a paradise island for a few months to do some soul-searching, and the US woman certainly found her life moving in a completely new direction when her dog ran up to a stranger.
It all began in late 2014, when former music executive Benjamin took an extended trip to the Caribbean destination of St Martin — one of her favourite places — “to figure things out”.
“I’ve often found refuge and solace and made some pretty big life decisions just on vacation (there),” she told CNN Travel.
“So it’s like my safe place.”
Benjamin had been walking along the beach with her beloved pooch Dylan when a man in a nearby restaurant caught the dog’s attention.
“I saw (Dylan) licking some shoes,” Benjamin said.
“And then I looked up, and I locked eyes with this man who became my husband.”
Benjamin says she instantly “felt very comfortable” around Sandro Scarafile, a French chef who had been living in the Caribbean for two decades, and said they “were together always” after that chance meeting.
Four months later, Benjamin decided to head to Houston, Texas, to care for her ageing mother.
“He was like, ‘I’m coming’,” Benjamin said.
Soon after arriving in Houston, Scarafile pulled Benjamin’s mother aside and told her he hoped to marry her daughter.
The couple were married in 2015 and lived in Houston for about eight years.
But as Scarafile’s parents — based in Nice in the south of France — got older, he felt the urge to be closer to them and the couple, who said “Houston was never the end game”, began seriously considering relocating to France.
“I’ve always been a person who is kind of wanting to move, explore and feel different places,” Benjamin, who was born and raised in New York, said.
Benjamin’s brother volunteered to move to Houston to help with their mother, giving her the freedom to make the move to France if they chose.
During a visit to Scarafile’s parents in 2022, he was offered a position at a restaurant in St Maxime on the French Riviera, between St Tropez and Cannes.
“He just really felt like, ‘This is my time, I need to be here’ and I agreed with him,” Benjamin said, adding when she drove down to visit the town she was immediately struck by its beauty and stillness.
“I didn’t know much about St Maxime,” she said.
“And we turned and drove over the bridge and the water was sparkling, the flowers were just so abundant. And I felt relaxed and calm.”
Benjamin was charmed by the town’s relaxed atmosphere and realised it was exactly what she needed.
“I felt the call to nature, the call to be closer to the sea — it was just a lifestyle I was really into having,” she said.
“So it wasn’t a hard sell for me. I was like, ‘all right , let’s go’. So it was kind of love at first sight.
“He took the job, got acclimated, got an apartment.
“And I went back, packed up our stuff and moved back here a month later.”
The couple have been living happily in St Maxime together, along with Dylan, ever since.
Benjamin said word of an American living in the town spread quickly as “there’s not a big expat community” and locals were fascinated someone from the US had chosen to relocate there.
“They’re like, ‘Why would you ever move from New York or LA or Texas to come here?’ and I’m like, ‘Why wouldn’t I?’,” she said.
Benjamin has taken to life in St Maxime and said being able to slow down has done wonders for her wellbeing.
“There’s just a different pace and way of life here that really speaks to me,” she said.
“There’s a big focus on nature. It’s celebrated. And I like that I feel very much more grounded here because of it.”
One of the other things she enjoys most about living in the quaint town, aside from the close-knit community, is how much time everyone spends outdoors.
“The people here are very active up until into their 80s,” she said.
“I have neighbours who are hauling six packs of water and their own groceries from the store in a little wheelie cart, who are in great health. Then they’ll jump on their bike and go for a swim in the sea.
“I feel like it’s just a great quality of life and it doesn’t matter what age you are.”
Benjamin and Scarafile have since moved to a larger property which she said costs about a third of what she had been paying in the US.
“It’s so much more affordable,” she said.
“I live probably 500m from the sea, with views of the river, and it’s just a fraction of the cost for my rent living in cities with no sea in sight.
“And then also groceries, everything is just a little bit more affordable here.”
Benjamin has also found the food is fresher in the region where there are a number of farm-to-table restaurants.
“I noticed when I got here I just automatically dropped a lot of excess weight, probably from being outside a lot and just the quality of the food,” she said.
Benjamin has rediscovered her love of tennis, which she enjoyed in her younger years, and is now a member of a local tennis club.
She loves the fact there doesn’t seem to be such a huge focus on work and people are more interested in hearing about someone’s personal interests.
“Nobody asks ‘What do you do for a living?’,” she said.
“You could talk to somebody for a long time and not have any idea what they do.”
Relocating to a new country undoubtedly comes with challenges, and Benjamin — who spoke little French before moving to St Maxime — said learning a new language “from scratch” hasn’t been easy.
“I just took for granted that I could communicate so freely because I speak the language where I’m from,” she said, adding she didn’t have much time to begin learning French beforehand because they moved so quickly.
“But being in a new country, and just even being able to communicate a thought really, really quickly, is sometimes challenging.
“Because you have to think, ‘How would I say this? And what’s the right tense to say this?’
“And by the time you’re thinking all of those things, the person is already gone or your mind gets stuck.”
Benjamin currently has a permanent resident card, which she renews each year, and plans to apply for French citizenship in the future.
However, she concedes she’s had to adapt to French bureaucracy and “learn the art of patience when dealing with paperwork, and the process”.
In 2023, Benjamin, who previously ran a Pilates studio in Houston, launched a wellness retreat company, Wish You Were Here Wellness Retreats, which offers residential stays.
“It has been really fun,” she said, explaining her clients are mainly women from the US who are keen to get a glimpse into the local lifestyle.
“I get to show people who want to come visit here the lay of the land through the eyes of an expat.”
After about two years in the south of France, the couple are very settled and able to visit Scarafile’s parents in Nice, just over an hour drive away, every two weeks or so.
Benjamin is particularly fond of the region’s rich art scene and enjoys visiting attractions such as Musée Picasso in nearby Antibes.
She advises others who are thinking of relocating to a new destination not to “overthink it too much”.
“If it feels like it’s something that’s calling you, just take the leap of faith and go for it and realise that there’s going to be ups and downs,” she said.
“Just because you move someplace else doesn’t mean that it’s going to be this perfect Instagram lifestyle.”
She added “nothing has to be 100 per cent permanent” and people always have the option to “change your mind if it just doesn’t feel right”.
“When necessary, and when aware, I do really think things through,” she said.
“But I do believe that when the stars are aligned and if it feels right, I do it.
“If it ends up not being the right thing, then I just kind of recalibrate and redirect my path.”
Although Benjamin loves St Maxime, she misses aspects of her life in the US — particularly family and friends, as well as certain “home comforts”.
Benjamin returns to the US to visit her brother – her mother had since died – and extended family and friends at least twice a year and hasn’t ruled out moving back one day.
“There’s a million reasons that could call me back to the US, I just don’t know what they would be or what they are,” she said.
“I’m open to continuing to just kind of follow my gut and go where I go. But I’m really happy here for right now.”