A widow, an empty nest and a €610,000 French château: How Abigail Carter reinvented her life at 59

Abigail Carter had been reconstructing a life she had never imagined herself living for the past twenty years. Her husband had perished in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, and she was left alone to raise their two children. Carter relocated to Seattle, wrote about bereavement, and then resumed painting. When both her children had completed their college education and moved out of her house, Carter found herself at an odd juncture in life; she finally had the freedom to make decisions about what she would do next, but wasn’t quite sure about what that was.

Then a YouTube video changed the direction of that question.

As reported by Carter on Business Insider, the entrepreneur viewed videos of a young family renovating a chateau in France and got into thoughts of a dream that she had shared with her husband. This was because they had worked on restoring historic homes in cities like London and Boston.


That old idea suddenly no longer felt impossible.

In 2022, Carter decided to investigate whether she could build a new life in France — not simply as a homeowner, but by turning a historic property into a retreat for artists and writers.

A solo property hunt turned into a search for a new life

The first place that Carter investigated was southwestern France in search of a house that she could run independently. She needed several bedrooms, good access to transportation, and a climate that would not be difficult to manage during winter.

The search was far less romantic than the idea.

As Business Insider reported in Carter's account, she spent about three weeks driving more than 600 miles through the French countryside. She viewed châteaux, manor houses and farmhouses, many of which needed far more work than she could handle.

She eventually returned to Seattle without buying anything.

But the trip had the opposite effect of discouraging her. Carter became more convinced that a retreat centre could give her the combination she was looking for: a home, creative work and a place where people could gather.

She returned to France and continued looking.

In addition, the thing that amazed her was Château de Borie, which is an abandoned castle situated in Lot-et-Garonne, somewhere between Toulouse and Bordeaux. It was vacant for many years, but the building boasted 12 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. The reason why Carter was drawn to this property is that everything was in order there, including sewage, electrical, plumbing, and heating systems.

After viewing more than 15 properties, she believed this one was manageable.

Carter revealed to Business Insider that she placed an offer based on just one hour within the property. She made an offer that was close to €70,000 lower than the asking price, and both parties agreed on €610,000.

She flew home the next day without another viewing.

“I told myself the property was in a state I could manage on my own — it just needed an interior facelift and some furniture,” Carter wrote.

The dream looked very different once the paperwork began

The excitement of finding the château quickly collided with the practical reality of buying property in another country.

Back in Seattle, Carter faced dozens of pages of French legal documents, which had to be translated. She also used a home-equity loan against her Seattle property, along with savings, to fund the purchase in cash because obtaining French financing would have been considerably more difficult.

There was another hurdle. To support her visa application, Carter needed a business plan demonstrating that her proposed retreat operation was a serious commercial venture.

What had started as an idea suddenly had paperwork, financial consequences and immigration requirements attached to it.

Carter has described the period as one filled with doubt. She was preparing to leave behind her Seattle home and a familiar life while taking responsibility for a massive historic property thousands of miles away.

Yet she went ahead.

Three months after making the deal, she returned to France for the closing. After signing stacks of documents, Carter received the keys to Château de Borie, but the romantic part of buying a French château ended quickly.

“How was I going to manage two houses when I often felt I could barely manage one? Could I run a business on my own? What was I thinking?” Carter wrote.

There was cleaning, painting and repair work. She had to deal with stubborn shutters, storms and the ordinary problems that come with an old building. As Business Insider reported, managing the property would eventually involve everything from leaking roofs and burst pipes to fallen trees and rocks.

The château was not a finished dream. It was a project.

Her château became a retreat — and eventually a business

Carter's daughter encouraged her to document the renovation online. The project became The Chateau Chronicles, with Carter sharing her experiences on YouTube and Instagram.

The online audience grew dramatically, eventually reaching more than 100,000 followers and subscribers across platforms, according to Business Insider.

The social-media presence also helped Carter introduce people to the retreat business she had imagined before purchasing the property.

Her first retreat took place in fall 2023, roughly a year after she bought the château. The workshop incorporated sketching along with yoga and involved 14 participants. The cost of participation ranged from €2,900 to €3,400 per person per week, according to the accommodation.

The workshop participants came from North America and Australia. While some were accomplished artists, some had just come to try out drawing.

The workshops were not confined to sitting inside with sketch pads. Guests drew around tables filled with secondhand French objects, worked in the garden, visited other châteaux, took cooking lessons and explored regional food and wine.

Carter's own retreat website describes the goal as combining creativity, French culture, travel, food and friendship rather than simply providing accommodation.

The business later expanded beyond art retreats to include writing programmes and dinners involving professional chefs.

Business Insider reported that the retreat operation now generates roughly €80,000 in gross annual income.

For Carter, however, expansion is not the main objective. She has said she wants to create meaningful experiences for people who arrive at the château during periods of change in their own lives.

That may be the most personal part of the business. “My goal isn't to scale endlessly; it's to deepen,” Carter told Business Insider. “To attract the right people, offer them something authentic, and send them home transformed.”

Owning an old French property from another country can sound idyllic until something goes wrong.

Carter has had to deal with contractors, French bureaucracy, language difficulties and the constant maintenance demands of a historic building. The property's limestone cliffs have also created problems that she could not have anticipated when she bought the estate.

That doesn’t necessarily end the issues because even a leaky roof, broken pipe or falling tree could turn her time away into something that needs to be immediately fixed. However, Carter has managed to surround herself with people who have her back.