A TICKET TO A NEW LIFE | TF1 | Reportages

Change the course of your career, start over from square one, change your life and your area… more than one in three French people declare themselves ready to take that step! However, working for yourself after years as an employee, going back to study at 50, struggling to obtain a loan present no easy options. Thierry, Karima, Isabelle and Patrick earned good livings until the day they decided to drop it all and begin a new life. Thierry, 51, left higher education nearly 30 years ago. As a senior manager with a large American corporation, he sees his team managers crack up, watches as people are fired, until the day when he, in turn, falls victim to “burn out”: “You try to take responsibility… we were trained to do that, to be winners, leaders, but in fact it was me that fell apart…” A moment of enlightenment for Thierry. He decides to drop everything to pursue his passion: cooking. Cooking classes and then the purchase of a restaurant right next door to his home. The start of a new life and an whole load of stress. Patrick was a manager with a large food distribution chain, Isabelle HR manager with an automobile parts supplier with over 400 employees. A stream of job redundancies, an environment that had become meaningless… Aged 50 and then some, Isabelle and Patrick leave a major city in the east of France to live in a tiny village they fell in love with in the Morbihan… as butchers and caterers! As Patrick puts it, “Isabelle moved from cutting jobs to cutting chops!” A ten-year loan, plus all their savings. They work like crazy, but they don’t regret a thing. Karima, 45, an engineer by training, left her job as project manager in the computer industry to spend more time with her daughter: “It created a scandal when I used to go and collect my daughter twice a week after school… Apparently, you can’t be a mother and a project manager at the same time! I no longer have that problem today!” And also there’s her love of hats! An income cut to a fifth and with her CAP in her pocket, Karima has turned into a happy fashion designer.