Escape to the Chateau

In the heart of the French countryside,

a magnificent chateau stood empty and abandoned.

Its 45 rooms...

..12 acres of land...

..seven outbuildings...

..and moat - all left untouched.

As the years passed, its beauty began to fade

and its walls crumble...

But three years ago, everything changed...

Oh, wow! Look at that!

..when an intrepid British couple...

Turn, turn, turn, turn.

Wow.

...paid £280,000 to turn it into their dream family home.

Everything is gorgeous!

It's so incredibly important to bring it back to life.

Since they moved in, engineer Dick Strawbridge...

..and his wife, designer Angel, have put in heating and hot water...

Look at that! Yeah!

..and have transformed over half the rooms,

including three sumptuous guest suites

for their wedding and events business.

But, despite their hard work, their dream

often resembled a nightmare...

Whoa!

Oh!

You should not be able to see the sky out of your roof.

Behind every romantic story is the reality!

Now, it's time for the next chapter...

in Dick and Angel's French fairy-tale.

It's summer at the chateau and Dick and Angel are busier than ever.

There are seven weddings and 14 food lovers' weekends

to prepare for.

The stables are being converted into a home for Angel's parents

and the pollarded trees are finally growing back,

but there's still plenty of work to do around the grounds.

Now, as it's the school holidays,

there's Arthur and Dorothy to entertain.

Pull the flowers off! Pull the flowers off! That's it!

Whoa! That was a good pull. Get it in there.

Picking elderflower in the walled garden is an annual event and last

year Dick made, for both family and guests,

several bottles of cordial.

This year, he's upgrading.

Have you ever had my elderflower champagne, Angela?

No. Daddy! Look what we've got!

Wow! Beautiful!

Pull! Yes! My man's got muscle.

Wow, yeah! Good work! It smells good!

Now the family has set up home in rural France,

Dick is keen to teach four-year-old Arthur

and three-year-old Dorothy the lore of the countryside.

Arthur, come here! This is called a goosegog.

Yeah? Watch!

You've never played with these before look! I've got him!

Aha! It's on him! It sticks to you!

Argh! Goosegog!

Oh, no that's not nice.

No, no, I really don't like it!

No, no, no, no! Why did you show him that?!

When we're out in the country,

we do things like we play with stuff that makes girls go

"Oh! I don't like that!"

Got you! Oh, no! Mr Strawbridge!

Don't look at me, I didn't do anything.

You are fully responsible for this!

Between entertaining the children and winding up Angel,

there's always work to be done inside the chateau.

And top of Angel's current to-do list -

the enormous nine-metre-high back staircase.

Once only used by the chateau's servants,

today it's the main route to the new Boudoir Suite on the second floor.

So, as wedding guests will soon be using it,

Angel wants to transform it from an embarrassing eyesore

to an elegant entrance.

I actually don't understand what you want, I'll be completely honest.

What do you want to do here?

Well, I don't want to do anything particularly fancy

but I've had an idea...

It could save us money.

I'm going to recreate what is in the Honeymoon Suite turret

by taking pictures and actually have that printed on to material.

When they first moved into the chateau two and a half years ago,

Angel discovered in the attic, rolls upon rolls of antique wallpaper...

Ah! Seriously!

..some dating back to the 19th century.

Determined to preserve their patterns for posterity,

Angel created, inside the Honeymoon Suite, the wallpaper museum.

Now she wants to replicate it on the back staircase.

I've got this idea that I'm going to cover this in Dacron...

Just picture this.

Cover this in Dacron - you know the spongy stuff

that I've put on the seats?

And then cover it in a graphic.

Your first words in that conversation were,

"It's going to be cheap and save us money."

And then you went on to talk about having a bespoke printed

something or other on Dacron.

That's not going to be cheap.

Yeah, I know but actually getting Steve to plaster these walls

is not going to be cheap either.

So basically up to at least that point is going to be a padded room?

Yes, it doesn't sound as nice, does it, when you say a padded room?

It's just, you know, they're going to be elegantly padded walls.

And very French as well. OK.

Now it's become clear how much needs to be done...

..and how awkward the space is, Angel's simple idea seems to

have turned into a task of Herculean proportions.

I honestly... I thought that this was quite an easy job -

this job, but it's not.

I need another lift, baby!

But it's not just new jobs that Dick has to deal with.

Oh, no!

Outside, one that he'd thought he'd finished,

now urgently needs his attention.

In spring, as part of his drive to be more self-sufficient

and live off the land, Dick planted 24 fruit trees

in front of the chateau.

Just a couple months on, they're under attack.

I've lost one, two, three.

Three trees definitely gone.

Pomegranate, medlar...

and a mul...

A pomegranate, a medlar and a mulberry.

The chateau is in one of the most agricultural regions of France,

surrounded by over 20,000 square kilometres of farmland

and a lot of hungry wildlife.

Having the wildlife is a real pleasure.

This is a pain in the ass, this is.

And with so many trees damaged, Dick's keen to catch the culprit.

Little buggers.

While Dick decides how to tackle the intruders,

Angel is busy photographing the Wallpaper Museum.

I love this room.

It's so beautiful having the original wallpapers, you know,

from the chateau since the day it was built.

And I'm celebrating that.

Angel's idea is to replicate this plethora of pattern

all along the back staircase.

But first, she's got to transfer her photos on to material.

I'm bloody excited.

But it's going look lovely.

Look, this room is a bit bonkers but it works

and the back staircase is quite an intricate shape.

It goes up and around.

So it's going be pattern, it's going be textures,

it's going to be 3D and it's going be full.

It's going be really over the top.

I can't wait, I really can't!

Oh, look! What's this?

In the orchard, or what was once an orchard,

ex-Lieutenant-Colonel Dick Strawbridge

is about to launch a campaign against enemies unknown.

And he's brought reinforcements.

There's a tree.

Do you see the tree over here? Do you know what this is?

What? This is a special night-time trail camera.

What Daddy's going to do - is Daddy's going to take

a photograph, or maybe a video, of what's been eating our trees.

What do you reckon?

Daddy, I don't want to...

Daddy, I've got an idea, let's leave it here!

Dick, though, knows from his army days that the higher ground

is always strategically better, even if it's just a couple of feet.

Up on my shoulders. Are you happy up there? Is that better?

There we go, there we go.

The idea is we go back to our house and when we're in our house,

do you know what happens? What?

This will take a photograph on our camera of an animal.

What do you think of that?

While they wait to see what the camera catches,

Dick heads into the kitchen to make some home-made elderflower fizz.

In here with these.

The aromatics come in here

and then we add some sugar to get our sweetness into it.

How many lemons have we got?

Ten lemons - perfect.

This is something that's just sort of...

It's an annual thing.

You get it once a year

and because you make it now, it is a very summer treat.

Finally, add 22 litres of water...

..and white wine vinegar.

Plus, a bit more for luck.

Give it a good stir.

Turning elderflower into alcohol has been done since ancient times

and Dick learnt his viniculture skills

from a prize-winning professional.

This is proper country wines.

My mum was the Women's Institute All-Ireland

Pea Pod Wine champion

All right? Just saying - it's pedigree.

It's in the blood.

Dick may be master in the kitchen...

..but when it comes to decorating the chateau,

Angel's definitely in charge.

Every detail of every room reflects her natural curiosity

and vivid imagination.

And with 45 rooms to fill,

she's always on the lookout for the unusual.