She vacationed on a Thai island for over a decade. Then, she took over a boutique hotel.

The sun was shining, the sea was glistening, and the woman in front of me looked every bit the boss of this little slice of paradise in Thailand.

Dressed in breezy beachwear — a matching set with bold prints in yellow, pink, and orange — she stepped out of the hotel's front office and greeted me with a bright smile.

"Sunglasses are a must," she told me with a laugh, as she led me down the long entryway lined with lush greenery, the tropical sun blazing overhead.

Pauline Cabessa runs Cielo Samui, a boutique hotel on Koh Samui's Bo Phut beach.

For more than a decade, Cabessa and her husband escaped their home base in Saint Tropez every winter to holiday in Samui.

They were frequent guests of the hotel — then named Eden Beach Bungalows — where they struck up a friendship with the French