How falling for a stranger she met on a beach led this woman to ditch the US for the French Riviera

She’d traveled to a paradise island for a few months to do some soul searching, and Niki Benjamin, from the US, found her life moving in a completely new direction when her dog ran up to a stranger

It all began in late 2014, when Benjamin, a former music executive, took an extended trip to the Caribbean destination of St. Martin (Sint Maarten in Dutch,) one of her favorite places, “to figure things out.”

“I’ve often found refuge and solace and made some pretty big life decisions just on vacation [there,]” she tells CNN Travel. “So it’s like my safe place.”