We are finally back.
There has been a long gap since we last filmed. We had intended to record something every week, but so much has happened that we now find ourselves heading into autumn feeling as though we have missed an entire season.
The main reason for our absence is a very personal one. I lost my mum in May, very unexpectedly. She was probably our biggest supporter and inspiration. In many ways, she was the reason we came to live at the château at all. It was she who first showed us Escape to the Chateau on television and encouraged us to take the leap.
She stayed with us here for three months last year and loved it. Losing her knocked us for six. What made it even harder was that it happened just as we were hosting our first two weddings. Emotionally, it was a difficult time, and practically, it caused a lot of confusion and anxiety as we tried to keep everything running.
Despite that, we did get through those first weddings, and the good news is that they both went really well.
The first wedding was small: just the couple and their three children. Even so, it was very stressful because we had never met them before. On top of that, it rained all day. But they were absolutely delightful and genuinely happy with everything we put together for them. Shortly after, we hosted a pre-wedding meal for 98 people in our hunting lodge for a friend from the village, which was a completely different scale altogether.
Having done that, we feel much more confident about welcoming larger groups. What surprised us most was how nervous we felt beforehand. We are used to talking to people who understand the Chateau DIY journey, but hosting guests who don’t know the show or our story is a very different experience. It made us see the château through fresh eyes.
Things we had learned to live with — like graffiti — are simply not acceptable when people are coming here as guests. That realisation led us to start properly “brushing up” the château.
We began with the grand landing. Zion calls it the second-floor landing because he counts the basement as the first floor; I call it the first floor. Either way, it was covered in graffiti. We have now painted it, and it already feels far more respectable and welcoming.
Our next focus is the floor above. We are very consciously upping our game. The plan is to add three en-suite bathrooms, with the long-term aim that all 18 bedrooms will eventually have their own bathrooms. That may mean sacrificing a few smaller bedrooms to make the space work, but we think it is the right decision.
At the same time, we have been looking seriously at the possibility of installing a lift. Zion has already identified the best location, where it can be fitted without moving any walls. Interestingly, when you stack the rooms vertically, the space for a lift already exists.
One of those spaces is the ground-floor bathroom Zion built last year specifically for my mum. Ironically, that is the room we have now decided to remove so that we can prepare the lift shaft for the future. We cannot afford to install the lift yet, but by preparing the spaces now, we avoid having to undo finished work later.
This video really is just a catch-up. We have a lot more to show you, but our plan to post weekly was completely thrown off course. We are still here, though, and very much back to work.
The garden is coming along well, although we had to shelve the swimming pool project this year. The ground has been incredibly wet, the summer barely started until July, and with clay soil it was simply impossible to get machinery onto the land. For the same reason, the wildflower meadow had to wait too.
Looking ahead, we have one wedding booked for next year, and we are fully open for weddings in 2026. Our hope now is to get back into a regular rhythm of sharing our life and our projects here in France.
Bye for now, and see you soon.