Local Author Feature // Marianne C. Bohr
Marianne C. Bohr, is one of our newest local authors. She retired in 2016 from a career in publishing and teaching middle school French and moved here from Maryland soon after.
Being skiers and hikers, she and husband Joe, love that Park City is a real town and not just a ski resort. “We also love that the international airport is so close for our frequent getaways,” explains Marianne. “Our two adult children are in LA and DC and so we chose somewhere in between they would appreciate visiting.”
A nearby airport was a major consideration because the Bohrs have long been travel enthusiasts, hence the inspiration for her book Gap Year Girl: A Baby Boomer Adventure Across 21 Countries.
They backpacked through Europe in 1979 as students and knew they wanted to repeat the adventure. “We didn't want traveling extensively as 23-year-olds to be ‘all there was’ so we agreed that once our eventual children graduated college and their tuition was paid, we would take off to backpack for a year. We didn't know exactly what year that would be, but it ended up being 2011.”
Two months into the trip, they wondered if they’d made a serious mistake. “We'd left Paris to explore the Dordogne and Lot regions of southwestern France. It was late October, after the season, and everything was deserted and lonely. Weeks of empty medieval villages and lack of Internet got to us, not to mention the bloody history of the Cathars in the area. We had a couple tough, depressing nights, but rallied, took the train to Barcelona and all the activity and people there pulled us through.”
On the upside, the Bohrs ran the 2012 Paris Marathon with their children there cheering them on and spent a month in Rome getting to know their landlords and delving into the city more deeply than typical tourists.
Marianne knows how lucky they were to be able to take a year off. It’s not something everyone would be able to do. She has advice for anyone considering a gap year. “Feel the fear and do it anyway. It's a scary thing and you have to acknowledge that. Have a loose structure but several key events to look forward to and leave plenty of room for unexpected changes.”
Her next book, to be published late next year is called The Twenty, about a two-week hike they did across Corsica to celebrate their 60th birthdays.
Look for Marianne’s books at Dolly’s Bookstore, on Amazon and the usual sites.