How can I understand "Je pensais jamais m'en venir à 1000 milles de chez nous, là."?

EDIT: Here are some links that were helpfully given to me in the comments, that answers my questions:

(Found in this youtube video. Spoken by a woman born in the 1950s in a French-speaking part of Northern Ontario).

For the following sentence (taken from non-auto-generated subtitles):

Je pensais jamais m'en venir à 1000 milles de chez nous, là.

DeepL gives:

I never thought I'd come within 1000 miles of home.

I understand that "Je pensais jamais" is an ellipses of "Je ne pensais jamais". But then I get confused. The following are my thoughts:

If I were to translate DeepL's English back into French, I would use a "que" clause: "Je ne pensais jamais que .. I'd come within.."
So I'm thinking maybe that "Je pense" can be followed by an infinitive instead of a "que" clause, because the subject in the "que" clause is the same, that ?
I am not sure what the "en" in m'en venir means. It can't be replacing "from here", because "de chez nous" is already written out!
I also am not sure what the "m' " in m'en venir means.

So my confusion seems to be about 1) "Je pensais" being followed by an infinitive, and 2) The meaning of "m'en venir".

Can you help me underestand this sentence, and perhaps give other example sentences that use similar constructions?

asked Aug 2, 2021 at 13:43

silph

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@None Is "Je pense + infinitive" meaning "I think [I could/would (infinitive)]" standard French?
– silph
Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 14:01
@None also, thanks for reminding me that fr.wikitionary.org exists. It seems to have entries for locutions that other dictionaries don't have
– silph
Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 14:03
the links about s'en venir and penser + infinitif might be exactly what I need. I might mark my question as duplicate by the end of the day, if I don't have any questions about those links. thanks.
– silph
Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 14:15
1

The Deepl translation is wrong: s'en aller, to leave or go away; s'en venir, to come to or come. This is not at all like the penser à/penser de. Translation: I never thought I'd come here, 1,000 miles away from home. OR I never thought I'd come 1,000 miles away from home, here. One tricky bit is the là. I don't see why this was closed.
– Lambie
Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 14:28
2

Je n'aurais jamais cru me retrouver à 1600 km de chez nous, là !
– jlliagre
Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 17:42

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How can I understand "Je pensais jamais m'en venir à 1000 milles de chez nous, là."? [duplicate]