All language subtitles for Escape to the Chateau Specials S06 E01 - Escape to the Chateau Restoring the dream.English

In the heart of the
French countryside,

a magnificent chateau stood
uncared for and abandoned.

Then five years ago,
everything changed...

EVERYONE EXCLAIMS

Wow, look at that!

..when an intrepid British couple...

Turn, turn, turn, turn.

Wow!

..unlocked its front door...
Everything is gorgeous.

..fell in love with its grandeur and
embarked on an adventure.

Oh, boy!
SHE LAUGHS

Now, over three unique episodes,

engineer Dick Strawbridge and

his wife, designer Angel, look back
at how their dream became a reality.

We never went into this project
thinking it was going to be

an easy project.
It was a massive, massive job.

The years of epic engineering.

Engineering happens before beauty.

The monumental transformations.

I'm taking, like, everything
that I think is eye candy,

and bringing it back to life.

And their decision to
move their family to France.

I love that the kids are so happy.

CHEERING

When Dick and Angel first
thought about living in France,

a rundown chateau was the last thing
they wanted.

Let us live in France
where it is very simple.

We can buy a little house,
have children and no mortgage.

No worries at all.

We'll just go and live the perfect
dream in a little, tiny house. Yes.

There is a bit of irony to this
because that was how it started.

That's how it started. Yeah.

But an abandoned chateau captured
their hearts,

and they dedicated their lives
to restoring it.

HE LAUGHS

From engineering and electrics...

But whoa, whoa, whoa!

We have electricity.

..to salons and suites...

I think we've done well on not
a lot of money.

..the chateau slowly
but surely came back to life.

Hello.

Aaargh!

And today they have created
an extraordinary

home for their children...

Thank you, darling.

..six-year-old Arthur and
five-year-old Dorothy.

Dorothy first.

SHOUTING
OK, now, now.

What we have to do, feet together.
Hands by your sides, look forward.

Look all the way forward. See the
castle on the other side.

Very good. I think that's us,
Dottie.

There we go. Move away.

Oh! That's Dorothy's Mark. She's
too big. She's beautiful.

Arthur and Dorothy - they know
nothing else other than living in
France.

Yeah. Living in the chateau.

Arthur pretends he remembers London
but he don't.

That is phenomenal, Arthur. Look!
You and Dorothy have both grown.

But to appreciate just how much has
changed, we journeyed back with

Dick and Angel to the very beginning
of their French fairy tale.

In the summer of 2014, Dick and
Angel were living in a rented flat

in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

Are you ready? Yep.

Arthur was just 18 months old
and Dorothy, a mere babe in arms.

ARTHUR SQUEAKS

I'd been working hard for about
15 years.

And I realised there is a little bit
more to life than just working so
hard.

I'm a country boy.
Angel's an East End girl.

What we want to do is we want a
quality of life,

and having a happy family.

We just couldn't think of anywhere
we wanted to live in England.

We went on holiday to France
together.

It was in a beautiful gite, it had
four storeys, a big stone staircase.

A big log fire.
It was so French and so charming.

And then you said,
"Why don't we move to France?

"If we can buy a property this
cheap."

So, straight on the internet.

To be fair, it didn't take you long

before you were looking at chateaux,
did it? About five minutes.

That's the, erm, the book de vente.

Once their plans had expanded
from cottage to castle, it was

clear that Dick and Angel were
preparing to take a huge risk.

We're actually in search
of living the dream that

everyone actually does want,

but everyone is a little bit scared
to do it.

..and this is an orangery.

It's an orangery, stable,
double garage and an office. Yes.

So it's a lovely building.

We are thinking, if we are going
to have a place that's lovely,

we are going to be able to continue
working and we can run courses,

we can do weddings,
we can do various things.

Ideas we are not short of. This is
the staircase, staircase of castles.

It just allows you to have all
the things you dream of.

Decent wine, decent food,
a really nice place to live

and smiling a lot.
That's what it's about.

A chateau in France, it's too fairy
tale, isn't? But it's achievable.

It could be an endless pit of money.

That's my biggest worry.

To find their future family home,
Dick and Angel travelled the length

and breadth of France.

Fromagerie is to the left. Right.

What's fromagerie? Cheese.

Almost 100 individual chateaux were
checked out and assessed. That's it.

Wow. Wow, wow!

But none perfectly
fitted their strict criteria,

nor their rather limited budget.

This isn't the French
kitchen that we had in our mind.

There is work here, there's a lot
of work here. There's the heating.

There's the electrics, there's
the plumbing, there's the en-suite.

I think it might be a bit
overpriced.

How long had we been
shopping for chateaux for?

Well, it was near on four years.
We looked at an awful, awful lot of
chateaux as well.

That sort of a trip... It's
interesting how much you learn about

what you want and what you don't
want.

I think the thing I find
the funniest is the fact that you

wouldn't have been happy if
you didn't have an orangery.

And then...but several weeks before,

you didn't even know what
an orangery was.

Of course, when you're growing up,
you've got the fairy-tale castle

with turrets and it's all very nice
but you never really think,

as a kid,
"Oh, I'd really like an orangery."

In October 2014,
a chateau came onto the market

that on paper at least appeared to
be everything they wanted.

You'll see a chateau
coming into view in second.

So the whole family, including

Angel's parents, Jenny and Steve,
piled into the car.

It's Chateau-de-la-Motte Husson.

Can't turn in there. No.
What's here? What does this say?

Something! I'm going to go...

..pony club. No, no,
it's the next one.

Ahhhh...

HE MUTTERS FRENCH NAMES

This is... Yes! Oh, wow!

ALL EXCLAIM
Look at that.

Well, I think... Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Did you have any doubts
you were going to live here?

No, I honestly, I lost my breath.

I mean all of us,
I remember just going, ohhhhh!

It was a beautiful moment,
wasn't it? Quite special.

It's a bit fantasy, look at that
moat.

Look at these, that's my workshops.

Ahhhh!

And this one was a good price,
had the orangery,

it had the walled garden, it had
a moat cos you know,

you don't like people.

And it was just beautiful,
it was fairy tale.

Located 160 miles south-west
of Paris,

the Chateau-de-la-Motte Husson

was built between 1868 and 1874 for
the Count and Countess de Baglion.

First impressions
are ridiculously positive.

Angel wants to make an offer and
we haven't even seen anything yet.

This is truly beautiful.

Darling, darling, I love it.

I love it, I love it more.

But having said that, we haven't
looked inside yet.

Common sense,
just think for a little bit.

But from the moment the key
was turned,

there was no going back. Right.

When we walked through that front
door, it was love at first sight.

There was so much detailing that was
original and hadn't changed.

I'd never ever seen a floor like
this, the parquet floorings in my
life.

I could go on forever about all
the... The stairs going up.

The lines on the stairs.

It went all the way to the servants.

Basically, the chateau sold itself
to you as you came through

the door.
Ah, there was... Apart from

that you know, it had no electric
water, heating... Sewage.

..sewage, it was perfect.

This is the main salon.

Oh, it's amazing.

Aaah, it's pretty incredible.

I've no idea how I'm going to get
up there to water the flowers.

The amount of light that is in here
and the view and things.

OK, master bedroom. 45 rooms
were spread over five levels.

Each floor an enormous
215 square metres.

The whole chateau could fit nine
modern British homes

within its four stone walls.

It also meant there was
plenty of space to entertain,

and as Dick and Angel were hoping to
set up a wedding and events

business, exactly what
they were looking for.

Hold on. No way!

The dumb waiter. Yep.
Darling, we're in business.

SHE LAUGHS

BELL RINGS

Dick and Angel were head over heels
in love,

but they also knew the chateau was
far from perfect.

I'm trying to be sensible.

This is a huge house, it's got
the orangery, the walled garden,

it's got all these
things going for it

but we are talking a lot of money to
get back to where it should be.

It is so doable
and it is so beautiful.

It's almost too good because
we've seen a lot of chateaux,

we've seen a lot of houses,

I think both of us are
like little children being excited.

When you're looking for wives
and husbands and houses, you know,

really important things
in your life, there's lots of...

I don't know what
you're going to say next.

There's lots of times
when it could nearly work.

But then you meet the one.

Dad, can you take picture of us?
Go on, nice big smile, please.

I hereby declare that we have
found our property.

I had a similar feeling to
when I met Dick

and I felt a bit sick with
excitement so...

THEY LAUGH

She's found the one she wants,
we're in trouble.

Within a few weeks,
they were the chateau's new owners,

its purchase the beginning of an
epic adventure for the whole family.

We're going to start a new
generation of

Strawbridges in France.

Do you think they are ready for us?
Les petits Strawbridges.

But to make their new home
habitable,

Dick was faced with an enormous
amount of engineering.

So we chose France for all the long
lunches, the relaxed lifestyle,

the having a small house without
much work, what else?

LAUGHTER CONTINUES

From the moment they bought
the chateau in 2015,

Dick and Angel faced
an enormous challenge.

We're looking back at how
Dick's engineering feats

have miraculously transformed the
chateau over the last four years.

Come out this way a little bit,
Steve.

At the beginning of 2019,
he and builder mate Steve

turned their attention
to his 150-year-old pissoire.

There's more water than I expected.

And it's clear. And it is clear.
Well, it's pretty still.

It's not been disturbed.

I want to look for treasure.

I just want to see if there's
anything at the bottom of this.

When we arrived, this old building,

this old room,
had two side-by-side loos on it.

That means it was two holes,

which over a period of a century
and a half...

Somebody could have been here
and thrown anything down there,

dropped anything down the loo.

So in this little bit at the bottom,

if you look down, amongst
those stones, could be anything.

Sadly, I'm looking at the gap
between there and the wall,

and I may not fit in that gap.
Steve.

Ha-ha, give up!

Whether it contained treasure or
not, the outside loo did

reflective the chateau's original,
but rather basic, facilities.

When we first arrived,
our plumbing involved going to the

bottom of the tower, downstairs to a
tap, filling a couple of jugs up...

..and bringing it up
and filling up the loo.

That was our plumbing.

Getting from that to being a fully
plumbed-in chateau with...

Hot water. ..hot and cold water,
it was a massive, massive job.

In January 2015, Dick and Angel got
the keys to the chateau.

It's -4 outside,
it's not very warm inside.

As their new home was far
from habitable...

There's been
an electrical fire here.

..a nearby cottage was rented.

While Dick worked out the quickest
and most economical way

to heat a 45-room building.

For 150 years,

the chateau's 13 fireplaces had
been its only form of heating.

Running hot and cold water had been
introduced at some point,

but the plumbing was rather
rudimentary, to say the least.

This is good.
It's practically a bathroom.

That's going to need a
good, good scrub.

Then we can actually... Ugh!

That's very, very unpleasant.

One of those things that always
makes me smile is just

remembering you, when you had a look
in our only loo for the first time.

It wasn't the first time I saw it,

it was the first time I saw it and
you lifted the lid up, actually.

There's a difference, isn't there?
There's a massive difference.

As they were moving
in during the winter...

Wow!

..Dick's priority was installing
a reliable

hot water and heating system.

The hot water coming out here.

Dick's cunning plan was to use
two wood burners

and a gas boiler to heat up
the water,

and then a thermal store
in the attic to keep it warm.

It all comes
down from the thermal store.

For baths, for showers,
for sinks for the kitchens.

And as well as that,
the heat in the thermal store

provides the hot water
to run around our radiators.

The difficult thing here is
the scale of the job.

The chateau is huge.

As Dick needed to start somewhere,

he turned his attention first to the
chateau's chimneys.

Over six feet high

and decorated with the de Baglion
family's initials,

the 19th-century brick chimneys had
been out of use for years.

Now, Dick wanted to bring them
back to life by lining them

with a flue for the wood burners.

Ha-ha! Bonjour, ca-va?

Pascal, a local heating engineer,
was hired to help.

Les trois chiminees. Ouais.
La cuisine...

But Dick soon discovered planning
the plumbing was one thing,

speaking French, quite another.

OK? Merci, monsieur.

The last time I studied French
was 39 years ago.

I speak a lot more French
now than I did.

And your vocabulary is quite
reasonable now.

The grammar may not be great,

but you speak a lot more
than you used to.

I know a lot of words, and I just
don't know how to put them together

in an accent that doesn't sound like
it's not from Only Fools And Horses.

Nous avons une grande...
Erm... Store!

C'est une thermal store, en Anglais.
Mais, c'est... Erm... Chaud...

Ah, un chauffe-eau.

Chauffe-eau? Un chauffe-eau.
Un chauffe-eau!

OK, allons!
We're going to have a chauffe-eau.

Dick only needed to line three of
the chateau's six chimneys.

But when they're 17m up, it's
definitely a job for the experts.

No problem, no problem. No problem.

I just assumed there was going to be
some sort of a cherry picker

or a lift going up there.
Or lots of scaffolding.

Je sors mon echelle sur le toit.
Ouais? Et je monte.

Pascal's going on the roof.

It is a bit scary,
because I don't think anybody's

been up on that roof for
a very long time.

He's gone out the window, he's got
his special harness on, he's going

to attach himself and if he falls,
it stops him hitting the ground.

Depending solely on a rope
and good balance, Pascal was soon

out of the access window and on top
of Dick and Angel's chateau.

He just stands on our roof
quite happily.

He's actually dropping a rope down,
and his friend, Sylvain,

he's down there,
he's feeding it up the chimney,

that's why he's lifting
it up there. Right.

DISTANT WHISTLING

That's the singing Frenchman.
Or rather, he's whistling.

He looks great. He's the
Roger Whittaker of the French world.

Once the chimneys were lined, the
heating system could be installed.

As the removal van was
due at the end of the month,

Dick called in the troops.

You need mates,
and mates who are plumbers

and electricians understand
what's going on.

Friends of the family Lee and Kyle
came over from London

to offer their expert advice.

But even they were phased
by the scale of the endeavour.

Effectively, you're re-piping this
house from top to bottom.

I think they're crazy, because it's
very real. The deadlines are a mess.

Nevertheless, Dick's epic plan
was put into action,

and over half a kilometre
of new pipe

fitted between a tap in the basement
and the attic.

Today, this is one of Dick's
proudest achievements.

Look, there you go.

So, this is our first tap.

Our main input to the chateau.

Then comes through here.

Up we go.

Across the next workshop.

When it goes into the cav,
it goes up.

The salon's got the wood burner.

Basically, provide most of our heat
from the wood.

Then, children's playroom.

It's a playroom,
it's supposed to look like this.

And the pipes have to disappear,
so they're boxed in.

They go all the way up.

Pipes come up
the other side of this wall.

There we go.

Nobody knows it's here now,
but for a long, long time,

there was just pipes
and cables and all sorts here.

But from here, they go up.

So, here we go,
the pipes keep coming up.

This is only about 75 steps
to this point.

Ta-da!

The pipes go up.

There's a vent pipe there,

there's also pipes and electricity
going up to the hot water tank.

But this little bad boy,
the junction comes off it

and it joins in the suite,

which was the last battle we did.

It's so satisfying, connecting
to the very first thing you did.

The fact it works is all
I really care about.

Who would have thought
these colours?

But back in 2015,
with just days to go

until the removal van arrived,
Dick hit a snag.

These walls are thick.

Going through the wall is going
to be a major nightmare.

To feed the pipes into the rooms,
holes had to be drilled

through three-foot-thick
stone walls.

See, that's what we need,
isn't it? Come on.

So Dick brought in the big guns.

I came to France
and I bought the biggest drill

they had in the equipment store.

If this works,
it'll make our life easy.

But the 21st-century drill soon
met its match

in the 19th-century stonework.

I'm going to call a stop on this.

You know, best will in the world,
the wall won.

Declaring defeat,
and with no time to spare,

Dick's only option was to chisel
out the holes by hand.

The clock's ticking, the removals
are coming, there's no heat.

So all in all, erm...yeah.

Soon though, Dick's deadline was up.

HORN

It's all happening now.

It was time for
the Strawbridge family

to move into their new French home.

Is it really going to fit through?

I've got to say, absolutely amazing.

It's a bit rudimentary inside,
but it's good, it is good.

Umbrellas,
they stay just over there.

There's an umbrella stand.

Darling, do you want this full-size?

Yep, lovely.

Bird cage is going in the
petite-salon, please.

And when the delivery men come,
every time I said,

"Oh, can that go in the salon."
Or the salle-a-manger.

I just felt like a 12-year-old.

Speaking French?
Yeah, speaking French,

but also a little bit giggly that
I'd said those words.

Yeah, it was great. It was just
a real novelty saying those words.

Baby, all our stuff's here now.

We live in France.

Now his family had safely moved in,

there was just one more thing
for Dick to do...

Here we go!

WATER FLOWING

I can hear it coming.

..check whether they had hot water.

OK.

Brilliant.

First fire done. Wow.

Heat!

Look at that! Ha-ha!

And it's warm water, hooray!

This floor is the comfortable floor
for the family.

And our suite is important.

But the temperature actually
falls off as you go up.

There's no reason to keep
the top at 20 degrees all the time.

I've learned about jumpers.

And layers.

We're getting more heating.

We don't really need it.

Do you hear that?
That's what she said.

Sometimes it's too hot. Sometimes I
have to take my jumpers off.

We've got some massive...

Over the past four years,

Dick and Angel have made some major
structural changes at the chateau.

Yay!

Now we're looking back at one of
their most ambitious projects -

transforming a 19m high turret
into a 21st-century lift.

Putting the lift in was huge.
It was a lot of work.

We had to start at the bottom,

get a horizontal floor
and go up to the top,

which meant you went all the way,
floor upon floor,

cutting holes, making more mess,
more holes, more mess,

more holes, more mess. Yeah.

Messy up, clean coming down
and froufrou, make me pretty.

What's difficult with that?

It was in autumn 2016
that Dick came up with the plan.

Our lift is going in this tower.

This is to the west.

And it's going to go
from the basement

all the way up the tower.

The lift is actually in the tube.

This is really simple.

At the top, there's a big fan and
this fan sucks air out of the tube.

This is a very simple thing to
demonstrate. Look at this.

This is my tube.

This is my lift capsule.

VACUUM CLEANER WHIRS

"Are you ready to come upstairs,
Angela?" "Yes, Dick."

To create Dick's vacuum elevator,

the turret itself had to be turned
into an almost 14m high lift shaft.

That meant first clearing
the basement room

and then cutting through
the three floors above it.

To save money, Dick and Angel
decided to do it themselves.

Whenever we work together...
Manual jobs together are hilarious.

I love it.

Giving her a sledgehammer,
saying, "Take down this wall,

"break up these pipes,"
it's nice, isn't it? Oh!

And I love it because...
She's got her lippy on.

And looking gorgeous knocking
down walls and breaking up pipes.

Well, when we work together,
it's like a date,

so I like to make an effort.

Oh, it stinks!
THEY LAUGH

Once the floors were cleared,

Dick and builder mate Steve had to
start cutting holes,

or at least try to.

It has to be exactly perpendicular.

Which means
if we're slightly out here,

it'll look a bit silly
in each floor.

But perfectly aligning holes
on three different floors

is rather hard.

I've got 75.

I've got 695.

700. 695.

About 693.

That is the right place for it.

Isn't it?

Yeah.

Once they'd measured
and measured again for luck,

there was nothing else to do

but start cutting through
the solid oak flooring.

Past the point of no return.
No return.

As they moved higher up the tower,
though,

the more jittery Dick became.

I hope that's where
we were supposed to cut.

DICK LAUGHS

It's giving me the willies
at the minute.

I really hope
we line this up properly.

By the time they reach
the top floor,

Dick's blood pressure was
almost as high.

This is not taken lightly.

It's a serious job,
I've got to tell you.

I remember going up to the top
and looking.

It's almost like vertigo

when you sort of feel like
you're drawn to the edge

to fall in the hole.

DICK LAUGHS NERVOUSLY
Bloody hell, Steve.

When you're looking through a hole,
looking down,

you're sort of, "I'm going to fall,
the world's sucking me."

Before the lift was delivered,
though,

the elevator company sent
one of their technicians Jesus...

Good to see you.
..to check their hard work.

I think we've done everything
we have to do.

Drop down a bob line. OK.

OK.

So, let's take it.

First, Jesus measured the angle
of the dangle.

Yeah, it's OK.

Oh, yes, he said it's good!
He said it's good!

As an engineering job,

Jesus said we had to be
absolutely 100% accurate.

Steve and I,
never mind the plumb line,

we had lasers out,
all sorts of things,

to make sure that it was perfect
all over.

And we were millimetric
sort of accurate.

I think we were probably
within 2mm on the plumb.

For Angel, though,

the lift shaft was never just
somewhere to keep an elevator.

To her, it was always going to be
the tower of curiosity,

where, with the help of friends
Sam and Sophie,

art and items from the chateau
would adorn the walls.

There was a very basic brief,

and the brief was
it's a botanical suite tower

and we want to incorporate
something from the garden.

On the top floor,

the walls echo the botanical
guest suite's horticultural theme,

whilst outside the dining room,

some rather familiar figures
could be found.

The night before the lift arrived,
though,

Dick and Angel were still busy
preparing for it.

And there would be no sleep...

..until everything was
sparkly clean.

Jesus told us that the house
had to be totally spotless

because when they put the lift in,

one bit of dust
could stop it all from working.

You get electrostatic charge
which means dust will come

and stick to it and if you get that
on the inside of the actual tube

when you're doing it,
you'll never get it off.

But there isn't anything
that you can say to me

that will make me smile more

than there is a technical reason
why you have to tidy

and make the house dust-free.

I love cleaning. I hate dust. Yeah.

The next morning,
Dick was up, ready and waiting.

bonjour! Hello!

Jesus, good to see you.
Good to see you. I'm Dick.

The Chateau's lift
had finally arrived.

Made up of six aluminium
and polycarbonate cylinders,

each one had to be first squeezed
into the bottom of the tower...

Made for it.

..attached to a winch
secured at the top...

It doesn't look wonky, does it?

..and then carefully hauled up
before being fastened into place.

JESUS SPEAK SPANISH

It fits. That's all we care about.
DICK LAUGHS

Finally, the elevator's base unit
was carefully carried in.

In just seven hours, Dick
and Angel's 19th-century chateau

had received a 21st-century upgrade.

And Angel... In you go.

..was its very first passenger.

Shut the door properly. Ooh.
OK. Choose the floor.

Woo!
DICK LAUGHS

Yay!

I thought it wasn't going to work
there, for a second. She's gone.

Ooh!
SHE LAUGHS

Been in a lot of lifts
but this is fun.

Willy Wonka would have been happy
with this.

That lift, albeit not the cheapest
investment that we've ever done,

I think it's been priceless to us.

It definitely has.

The lift is not the only
success story,

so is Angel's towel of curiosity

which has grown in size and colour
since we saw it three years ago.

The room, it just... It's changing.

Every year,
I've added something new to it,

it's been a little bit more painted,

things are sometimes coming out
cos they've fallen off.

I remember finding this letter
up in the Potagerie suite, actually,

this little envelope.

Aw, Dick bought me that.

It's a little matchbox holder
which I love.

It's...

Our lives are coming together.

All of these little things
found up in the attic

in the early days.

It was in a sort of
lady's travelling case.

You know, I've got these memories,
Dick's got these memories,

we're building memories.

You know, when we found
all of the old gramophone records

upstairs in the attic.

Oh, he's done a cracking job
of Arthur. Arthur just looks...

Aw, he just looks like
my little boy.

And that sword, we found it
in one of the outbuildings,

Dick and I,
and it was a horse sword,

like a horse fighting sword
cos it was twisted on the side,

and I did not know that trivia.

It's part of the Baglionis
and the Strawbridges together.

It's just gorgeous.

And my very handsome husband.

In a similar outfit
to what we had for our wedding.

And I bought him this
back in the early days, actually,

this slightly manky sporran.

And me. Well, what do you think?

SHE LAUGHS

I'm looking quite good.

I'm looking quite svelte,
my hair's perfect.

I've got a full head of hair.

You've got a full head of hair.
Just saying.

Being immortalised is totally
the way forward.

I love it!

Owning a 19th-century chateau
inevitably means

massive maintenance bills.

And the most daunting
of them all is the roof.

If you're looking at big
challenges and scary things,

the roof of any chateau
is always there as a big problem.

In 2014 when Dick and Angel were
still looking for the perfect home,

they were already aware
that a crumbling chateau roof

was a one-way ticket
to financial ruin.

It was done in 1909.

So the roof was always one
of the first things they checked.

If you look out the window,

you'll see that the shape of the
roof, there are some major issues.

This still needs a lot of,
lot of work.

So on their first visit
to the Chateau de la Motte Husson,

Dick headed straight upstairs.

The roof here,
part of it is very old?

The roof is the age of the chateau.
So this is original roof here.

The tower roofs
aren't in bad nick there.

The guttering looks new,
we like that.

There was a good sign when we got
here, they had actually fixed

the guttering
rather than just leaving it.

Because we looked at other chateau
in our time where the neglect

builds up and builds up
and builds up to the point

where they're sort of destroyed.

But in March 2017 the north-west
of France was put on orange alert

as a fierce storm headed in
from the Atlantic.

2,000 homes lost power.

And the chateau itself
was blasted by 75mph winds.

The next morning,
Dick braced himself for the damage.

This is a slate
that's come off the roof.

Losing one slate is not
the end of the world.

The big thing is what does that
say about the condition of the roof?

While the roof of an average
semidetached house in Britain

is 75 square metres,
the chateau's is a whopping 340.

Which could add up
to 4.5 times as many problems.

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

It is quite a serious problem.

I need to get some advice on this.

Oh, bugger!

You've got to know
where your limits are.

Dick and I both feel that we could
probably give everything a go.

But there are certain areas
of expertise where you just think,

leave it to the people
that have been doing it forever.

Some things you have to acknowledge,
it's best somebody else does it.

Yeah.

That someone else was
a local expat roofer called Ian.

Watch your top end. OK, yeah.

It's a bit awkward.
It's a bit steep.

Bit more. That's it.

That's it. That's it.

There's one thing for sure, I was
never meant to go on that roof.

Have you seen the size
of that hole?!

Dick might not have fitted
through the hole,

but as Ian wore a body camera,
he did get a live tour.

Careful of the slates. Yeah.
Don't want to knock any more off.

No, exactly.

This is the scary mystery
about buying any property.

It's a lot of engineering
making a roof like this

and chateau roofs are renowned
for being the problem areas.

As Ian peeled back the lead lining,

the extent of the damage
was fully revealed.

That's better.
we can see what we're doing.

It looks a bit manky, doesn't it?
Looks a bit old.

The top slates under
the lead were crushed.

We've got new slates,
so I'll put them on.

When the chateau was built in 1868,

14 skilled labourers were needed
to nail down over 29,000 tiles.

150 years later,
Ian was using exactly the same tools

and technique to fix them.

Brilliant job. Thank you.
Come down and be safe.

Dick knew though that Ian's work was
just a mere plaster over a wound.

One that could one day
need major surgery.

Well done.

I think when you take on something
like this, you know,

you know what you're getting.
And if you don't, you know.

We never went into this project
thinking it was going to be

an easy project. No.

By October 2018 more slates
had fallen off.

And Ian once more ventured out.

This time, Dick supervised
from the other side of the moat.

I can see missing slates.

Even though Ian could fix
the missing tiles,

there was no avoiding the fact that
the chateau would need a new roof.

We've got a ballpark sort of quote,

people have talked about our roof
and they've said £140-160,000.

That's a lot of euros
to be spending out, OK?

The scaffolding is probably
going to cost us 30 or 40 K.

If I said to you,

"Darling, this summer we're
going to be scaffolded up,"

do you think people would mind?
I think scaffolding the whole thing

would be an issue in a wedding
season because, you know, you...

Out of season's
not such a big issue?

Out of season, but then out of
season... Nobody wants to work. No.

Well, you know, you haven't got
the good weather.

And actually, the weddings
and events are...

They're what's paying for the roof.

..Is what's paying it,
it's our biggest revenue.

As major roof work can't be done
over winter,

and they didn't want any scaffolding
during the wedding season,

Dick was forced to come up
with another solution.

I can see a hook.

I think I've convinced myself
we need another window up there.

Because that whole face
on the left-hand side

with the chimney on it
has got no access to it.

You have to climb around
or climb over.

Putting a window in on that side
means we've got access

to every side of the chateau.

And if Ian had easy access,
no scaffolding would be needed,

already saving Dick £40,000.

Now it was just
a matter of finding the time.

Last wedding in September
we say right, October.

Bump straight in from the last
wedding in September

and see if we can do a face
of this roof per autumn.

So 2019, 2020, 21, 22...

It might take six years,

but it would mean the chateau
would get a new roof.

And because their wedding
business wouldn't be affected,

Angel would be happy.

This, if it works,
is a brilliant idea!

Yeah!

Over the past four years, Dick and
Angel have slowly and carefully...

I wanted this to feel
a bit different.

..Brought their abandoned chateau
back to life.

But despite their hard work...

Brilliant!
..There will always be jobs to do.

A job as big as restoring a chateau
with nothing, no heating,

water, electricity, sewage,
it's a massive big job.

But with anything,
you need a bit of logic.

It's like you eat an elephant
a bite at a time.

And you have to just work out
where you're going to start

and where you're going to finish.

And bring enough mayonnaise!

Next time, we look back
at how Angel's creativity

has helped transform the chateau
with her light touch...

..Immeasurable imagination...

My pineapple light from America
has arrived. I love it!

..And her extraordinary
attention to detail...

I always like doing things bespoke.

It's something that's unique,
like Dick!

He's so unique, one-of-a-kind!