escapefromthechateauDIY

Pick a region, any region One of the things that I would like to elaborate on in the book about Series One Escape to the Chateau DIY that  I'm finishing, (working title 'Beyond the Pool Pump' ) is the different regions featured, or rather not featured.  The show was about the people and their castles, not their place in France.   The clusters of castles selected were not situated in the ‘millionaire's playground’  the côte d'Azur nor the  'region Parisienne' but in less visited and less known areas tucked away in France's regions.   The region where a chateaunaut lands inevitably betrays an insight into their personality and dreams and as well as the fascinating histories and characteristics attached to the region that merit more than a fleeting glance. The great majority of chateaunauts from Series One had had a dose of visiting France as children.   Francophile parents, family homes, campsite holidays.   Fond memories of orangina, ...

1824 cadastre of Village and Château of St Ferriol, Aude More pictures below Cadastrophic When Channel 4 first conceived the programme that became Escape to the Château DIY the working title was Château Rescue. It was a good name for the collection of Plucky Brits who took on neglected French castles and, with all our might, tried to breathe life back into them. Here is a little tale of how it is not always what we think matters most, that makes the biggest difference. I was sitting in the notaire’s ‘bureau’ again. Fascinated as ever by the folders of Actes lining the book shelves in chronological order back to the 18th century. I’d sat there many times since 1996 when our first compromis de vente, a legal document which commits you to a sale (sometimes including clauses and exceptions) had been signed in this office with this notaire. The Château St Ferriol (www.st-ferriol.com) had been divided and redivided and changed hands many times over the years. The first...

Château de Lalande, kept in the family for centuries In English, when we think of the French word château, or the plural châteaux, we think of the fortified castles brought to the British Isles by the Normans. We think of crenellations, moats and stone spiral staircases. That is not what château means in France. In France châteaux range from medieval forts to a farm estate producing wine. You will find examples of them all in the legendary Loire valley. Fortified royal castles, ‘wedding cake’ palaces, manor houses, hunting lodges inspired by fantasies of antiquity and residences of the vineyards built up by wine producing families. There are examples of each of them also in the first series of ETTC DIY. Alison and Paul’s Château Brametourte, ( http://brametourte-test.com/home/weddings/wedding-service-options/gothic-courtyard ) in the Tarn department, is an example of a fortified building that has been little altered over the centuries. Eleventh century Roman v...

What will the paysans think of your chateau rescue shenanigans In the English speaking world calling someone a peasant is a term of abuse. You could say that ‘peasants’ in the UK are an unprotected and disappeared species. In France the word for peasant, ‘paysanne’, is a badge of honour. If you are a ‘vrai’ Paysanne’, you are a keeper of secrets and skills of the countryside, holding the fort against a rising tide of rubbish. Rubbish food, adulterated dairy, radiated lettuces. A modern life of keyboards and fashionable ideas in a pre-fabricated world. Paysannes still pick great bundles of vegetation every afternoon for their rabbits and measure the rainfall. They have their own winter wood growing, cut, drying, stacked and split. Some things are best not left to others. Whopper crops of artichokes, beans and tomatoes are transformed into exquisite preserves. Dried mushrooms gathered at ancestral glades in the woods dry by the fire, a stock of home made confiture always at the ready. It...

Many chateaunauts enjoy welcoming volunteers. The volunteers bring the world to us. It was a benefit James a​​nd I had not anticipated when we embarked on our castle rescue dream. We moved from Elephant and Castle in London to a tiny village South of Carcassonne, in the Aude, one of the least densely populated departments of France. We were soon informed by an encouraging neighbour and fellow chateaunaut about sites like https://www.workaway.info/en/hostlist/europe/gb https://wwoof.org.uk/how-it-works/be-wwoofer and https://www.helpx.net/ . These are sites where volunteers can post their interests, skills, dreams and availability and hosts can explain their projects, accommodation standard, work routine and expectations. The volunteers get themselves to you and you organise the work and everything else. Some stay for months, some pass through.  Over 22 years several settled permanently in the Aude. We as hosts learn to roll with their talents and interes...