On this episode of the podcast, we’re joined by Frédéric Sola, the founder and owner of Fez’s Riad Laaroussa and Fez Real Estate.

In our conversation, Fred shares his one way ticket journey to mental health stability which manifested in Fez. He opens up about his own experience suffering from depression -- which began in his mid 30s amidst a successful career in finance in London and Paris – and how he has worked to live with and manage it all these years later.

He went on to describe how he fell in love with Fez on his first visit in 2003, so much so, that he bought Riad Laaroussa in 2005. After 18 months of intensive renovations on the 17th century structure whose past life included serving as a koranic school, he opened the riad as a hotel-spa-restaurant in October 2006. It is, what I describe as, “Morocco meets minimalist chic”.

For Fred, the allure of Fez is not only visceral, but therapeutic. He offers that in Fez “you can feel this medieval atmosphere, a feeling of being surrounded by a cocoon. Or being in a cocoon. Or let’s say a riad can create the feeling of a cocoon.”

After settling into his new surroundings, in 2007, Fred met his future wife, Cathy Bellafronto, an American diplomat working in project development in Morocco. They married 3 years later and between 2011-2013 adopted 4 children from the Fez orphanage.

Our interview features many thoughtful comments from Fred about what makes Fez magical, the importance of community, travel (he, Cathy and the kids took a year off and drove down the Pacific coast from the US to Chile in a mobile home) and mental illness (where he believes “part of the recovery is accepting your disease”).

Fred’s story really typifies what The One Way Ticket Show is all about – interesting people, doing interesting things, with something interesting to say. On top of that, Fred is truly living his one way ticket journey!

Fred closes the interview with one piece of advice: “Enjoy the present, that’s all we have”.

Frédéric Sola on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederic-sola-20a0b87b/, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frederic.sola1

Riad Laaroussa: https://riad-laaroussa.com/

Fez Real Estate: https://www.fez-realestate.com

Journey Beyond Travel: https://www.journeybeyondtravel.com