Trish Jasinski: Taking the leap

How hard could it be to run a retreat business in a 14th-century French château you bought during COVID?

Trish Jasinski is 18 months into finding out.

After living in Paris for more than a decade and getting tired of city life, staring at four walls in her tiny Paris apartment during the COVID lockdown, Jasinski put her apartment on the market with thoughts of moving elsewhere. She got more than she expected.

That’s when friends separately made offhand comments that planted the seed. One said she could buy a château for what her Paris apartment cost. Another, over virtual cocktails, asked what she’d do for her 50th birthday now that COVID had canceled her big plans.

Most people would have just poured another drink. Trish started idly researching properties in southwest France.

She had spent 10 months looking at more than 30 apartments before she found her Paris place. The third château she visited was love at first sight. King Henry IV’s former hunting lodge had stone walls, a spiral staircase, and a tower. She made an offer the same day

“When the real estate agent handed me the keys, he said ‘Félicitations, Madame Châtelaine,’” Trish recalls. “Suddenly I had a title. First I was surprised, then excited about living in the most interesting place ever, then hoped it wasn’t haunted.”

The accidental cascade

None of this was the plan.

Trish had climbed Kilimanjaro for her 40th birthday. She wanted something equally memorable for 50. So she found herself on a château shopping trip.

Then the bank processed her loan as a primary residence instead of an investment property. She had to move in. She found herself living in a village where sheep outnumber people two to one.

She was still working her corporate marketing job remotely when organizational changes gave her an exit opportunity. She could start the retreat business she’d been considering.

Her father’s advice guides her: “Don’t get into anything you can’t get out of.” She could sell the château. She could return to corporate work. Having Plan B makes the risk bearable.

How hard could it be?

Her friends joke about Trish’s approach to problems.

One decision cascaded into the next. Madame Châtelaine quickly transitioned from sitting behind a laptop 10 hours a day in the city to preparing for guests and focusing on outdoor maintenance.

Wanting to upgrade her cooking skills for guests, she earned her certification at a French cooking school where the classes were all French. She wasn’t fluent when she started and admits she’s still learning.

When a dead tree threatened to fall on the house during high winds, she hired professionals to cut it down. Then she looked at the massive trunk and branches scattered across her property and thought: How hard could it be to clear this myself?

It took months. She bought a chainsaw, cut what she could, and hauled what she couldn’t. She pushed 50 cm-wide chunks down an embankment with her legs because she couldn’t lift them. She cut smaller branches, tried making a fence from them, watched the untreated wood disintegrate, then turned everything into wood chips for her garden.

“A lot of times it doesn’t turn out the way it’s supposed to, but that’s all right because I still feel that sense of accomplishment and eventually it gets to a place where I’m happy with it.”

The deck around her pool was old and needed to be replaced. She ripped up the boards and found rotting wood underneath. The cement base was angled. Everything had to line up precisely. She put all the boards down, screwed them in, realized they didn’t extend far enough and needed to be staggered for stability.

She ripped it up and started over.

When the bridge across her stream fell apart, she watched YouTube videos and built a new one using reclaimed wood. It’s been standing for more than a year.

Life in sheep country

More than 400 sheep graze on her property. Her neighbors make Ossau-Iraty cheese from their milk. Sheep traffic jams in town are routine.

The families who’ve lived there for generations welcomed her despite her strong American accent and imperfect French. She didn’t expect that. French cooking school became as much a language lesson as a culinary education. Navigating French business regulations and tax structures while still learning the language meant figuring things out the hard way more than once.

“There’s certain things that, looking back, I wish I knew sooner,” she says. “A few lessons I’ve learned the hard way, but I’m figuring it out.”

The daily reality

The retreat business is building more slowly than projected. With only four guest rooms, even strong bookings have natural limits (she admits to a bit of “chateau envy” for competitors with more rooms). Château maintenance has a way of surprising you when roof tiles fall and hornets build nests. Running a hospitality business in France, in French, requires navigating structures and regulations she hadn’t fully anticipated.

But each morning, she throws open the shades and peers out at the Pyrenees backdrop, the pool, the stream, and the bridge she built. “I pinch myself because I feel so lucky to be where I am.”

Then she gets to work. Five acres of fast-growing weeds. DIY projects instead of high-cost professional repairs. Light plumbing. All the things she never imagined doing when she sat in corporate meetings in Paris. Some days it’s hornets and roof repairs and adjusting the business model. Other days it’s sunrise over medieval stone walls and sheep grazing in her field.

Three years from now, she envisions a steady stream of customers for memorable experiences that are sustainable and profitable.

People saw her early in her journey on a French château renovation TV show. They email her saying watching her tackle these projects inspires them.

Her advice to others contemplating similar leaps: “Making big changes in your life doesn’t have to be fully planned out. Sometimes it’s just being curious and open to potential opportunities and seeing where it takes you.

Because how hard can it be?