My dream was to work in tourism, but with my results in secondary school, even though they were OK, weren’t good enough to get into a public tourism school. There was only one near me and there were lots of applications, so they took the best ones. What’s more, my English teacher had made sure to write ‘Applied but very shy student’ on my file… I can’t imagine that helped my application… I remember her laughing when I told her I wanted to work in tourism… I would have loved to have seen her on one of my tours, talking into a microphone to a whole group !!!! Teachers need to realise the impact they have on our children, at a time when they are developing and are so vulnerable…

As I couldn’t afford to go to a private school, I went to La Sorbonne to do a DEUG in English, but that wasn’t what I really wanted to do…

Then I was lucky enough to go to Ireland with a friend from university and meet an Angel who guided me for several years. Her name was Gisèle and it was thanks to her that I got the tour guiding opportunity in Ireland. She encouraged me to believe in myself and to live my life by listening to my heart.

It was also Gisèle who introduced me to Max in August 2000, who is now my husband: a man I admire, very intelligent, hard-working, creative and determined. I must say I’m very lucky!

In 2005 and 2006, we had two daughters. So I gave up my career as a tour guide to spend as much time as possible with my girls. I set up a club to teach French to young children in my village, all the while training in shiatsu and massage, specialising in pregnancy and childbirth. I wanted to work in a field that I loved and I was attracted by therapies. Once again, I followed my heart…

In the meantime, Max launched his sea-fishing tourism business.

Then came the fun part: developing my business while Max was developing his, with 2 young children!!!!

In 2012, I opened a Wellness Centre.

In 2013, we opened a holiday home

In 2014, I trained as a beauty therapist

In 2016, I began to be drawn to the world of online marketing – I wondered how I could help more people….

I’ve done a number of online marketing courses and learnt how to design my website, create lead magnets, email lists, videos, graphics, e-books and more – which has come in very handy as I’ve been working mainly online since the pandemic started in March 2020, as a Virtual Assistant for small businesses.

In 2018, we decided to go to Portugal during the winter, to get out in the sun and give the girls the experience of a different country…. So we homeschooled them, I took the car, the girls, the cat and the hamster and off we went from Connemara to Albufeira!!!! Max joined us there.

Since then, we’ve split our lives between Ireland and Portugal…

NO, all these choices were not easy.

NO, all these experiences have not been without difficulties (new country, new language, adaptation for the girls…).

But we have learnt so much!

We’ve grown so much!

What an enriching experience…

NO, I have no regrets about anything I’ve done so far.

AND YES, I have even more dreams, projects and ideas and I won’t stop!

And ABSOLUTELY YES, you too must do everything you can to make your dreams come true, because NOBODY will do it for you!

Today, I have fun offering beauty & massage treatments in Algarve as well as creating beautiful planners, templates and other digital tools for women.