Dick and Angel interview for Escape to the Chateau D.I.Y.

3 April 2018

 

Explain the concept behind your new show.

Dick: We’re not the only people to have bought a chateau in France, or to be interested in buying a chateau in France. There are a massive amount of challenges, and we’ve been to meet other people who have either bought or are trying to buy, and are trying to make a life for themselves in, their chateaux.

 

You’re encountering Brits who are embarking on the same journey that you have made – were any of them inspired to make the move by your programme?

Angel: We’ve had many emails from people who have made the move since, but I don’t think any of the people we’ve featured in the series were.

Dick: Quite a few of them have had chateaux for a long time, and are just having issues with it. But what has happened is that they’re interested in talking to us because they’ve seen the programme and they see that we’re having exactly the same problems they have. We get contacted by people who have moved to France who have bought a tiny house, and they have exactly the same problems we have, just on a smaller scale. We’re all in it together, because we all go through the same problems.

 

What do you think are the most common reasons for making such a massive move?

Angel: Lifestyle. You really do get a lot for your money out in France, and I think that’s one of the biggest catalysts, because you get so much land. We’re a breed, I really think we are, because there’s so much work and commitment that goes into maintaining anything of this nature.

Dick: We’re all very different, but I think there’s something of an adventurer in everyone who does this. If you go back through the centuries, the British have got everywhere, they’re always out and about the place. I think there’s a commonality. The lifestyle’s definitely part of it. Living in a chateau, or living in the country, it’s a lifestyle that’s attainable, but back in the UK we couldn’t have that. Unless you happen to win the Euromillions, buying something like this place in the UK is impossible – you can’t even think about it.

 

Let’s say a friend of yours came and stayed the weekend, loved it, and announced that they were going to buy and renovate a chateau. What would you say to them?

Angel: [Laughing] We’ve got the t-shirt!

Dick: I made a series out in America with very good friends Johnny and Nadine [John Littlefield and Nadine Stenovitch]. They’ve come across a couple of times. They live in Hollywood, they’re actors, and they just saw our lifestyle, saw what we were doing, and they bought a chateau half an hour away, which is bigger and in worse condition than ours. We would always say to people “Go for it,” because you don’t regret the things you had a go at, you regret the things you didn’t have a go at in life. We just believe that you should go for it, work hard, and smile a lot. Although there are tears along the way as well, let’s not be shy about that. But I sit there, looking out of the window, and I just thing “Ah, how brilliant.”

Angel: It’s like anything that involves a really big commitment – you’ve just got to love it with every part of your body. Otherwise you might as well just pack up and go and move into an apartment in the city.

 

We’re coming to the end of a rather long, cold winter. Is life tougher in a rural chateau in winter?

Angel: It’s definitely colder!

Dick: We’re third winter in, and I think we’ve learned how to live here, haven’t we?

Angel: Hmmm. I’ve got more jumpers.

Dick: She’s crap at wearing the right clothes. She doesn’t wear woolly socks, and she doesn’t have enough jumpers.

Angel: If you’ve got a chateau, you will have bigger bills. But the summer brings different problems. In the summer we have lots and lots of flies, which is something all the chateaux have in common. We all discuss our fly solutions. That can be really tough, if you’ve got a business that you’re running through the summer months, which we have.

 

Apart from the flies, what kind of problems and issues are you helping others out with during the series?

Dick: A lot of it is just straightforward business sense in some ways. And also saying to them “Don’t worry, you will get through it.” Angel’s been running her patisserie for 15 years in London, so she knows how to do the events side of things. When it comes down to the other side of things we do in the chateau, we just got experience by getting on and doing it. People who are a bit scared to try something, we just tell them to do it.

Angel: We did a lot of business talks, on and off camera. Tim and Magritte, for example, inherited a business in their chateau, and they carried on running it. And they just weren’t making enough money. And we just sat down and talked them through our model for weddings, and we’ve been delighted to hear that they’re doing weddings now. I think they’re really doing well. And I did a tea, with a couple, Jonathan and Michael, in their chateau. They wanted to do tea for the ladies that lunch. So I did a tea for them – quite a simple one – but there’s a lot of work that goes into high tea. You really earn your pennies. And it just made Jonathan and Michael realise that it wasn’t a direction they wanted to go in.

Dick: And there are other little tips. When you’re buying a chateau, always look at the roof.

Angel: But we had a lot of fun doing the show as well.

Dick: Absolutely. It’s shared experiences. Everybody’s got a slightly different problem. One of the chateaux was where the first King of Scotland was born. There were all sorts of things there with a Scottish connection, and we were looking for suits of armour at the bottom of the lake there. There are all these stories, it is actually and adventure. And if you’re going into an adventure with the wrong attitude, don’t bother. And most people we’ve met have just wanted to succeed. But there are people on the DIY show who feel like the chateau is a weight upon their shoulders. That, to us, is very sad, because that’s not the way it should be. You should be doing it with a bit of love and a bit of passion.

 

Obviously, initially it’s a huge slog, renovating an entire chateau. Are you out of the other side, or is it a job that never really lets up?

Dick: I think we can see the other side, but there are huge things still to be done. We can see the other side, we could stop doing things for a period of time and not feel too guilty, but you’ve got to keep pushing on. You’ve got to get the first coat on the Forth Bridge, but there’s still so much to do. Remember, this is home, it’s where we live, but it’s also a business space, and we’ve got so many things we’re trying to balance. We’re not finished, but we can see the end. But it won’t be the end, it’ll be the start of the next phase.

 

What are the attitudes of the locals, near you, or the other people you feature in the series? Are they thrilled, because you’re saving a historic building from ruin, or are they appalled that outsiders are coming in and stealing their heritage?

Dick: There’s a couple of different answers to that. For us personally, we are the only English people around this area, and they couldn’t have been more welcoming. Other areas, if you have a local treasure, people might feel a bit sad if it goes to different owners, and that could cause some problems. One couple who had a Michelin-starred restaurant really struggled with the locals not supporting it. But that’s a PR issue. The bottom line is, if you want to let somewhere go to rack and ruin and disappear rather than fix it, that’s so negative. There is that small-minded mentality in some areas. But the vast majority of people we’ve talked to have been really supportive. The French don’t want to buy the old derelict chateaux that need to be done up.

Angel: I think overall 90 per cent have been really positive. You do get that small-mindedness or suspicion of outsiders in England.

Dick: You could move to a village in Yorkshire or a village in Cornwall or something, and you could have that same attitude. You have to just go in there and live your truth, and be who you’re going to be. Our children are at school. They have their school friends come for playdates, they go to their school friends’ houses. I think you make your own luck by working hard.

Angel: And you’ve got to be friends with the mayor. The mayor runs the village.

Dick: Our local mayor actually learned some English for our wedding service, which is unheard of. We see him every day at school.

Angel: They have so much weight, and when we actually moved here, the advice of literally every French person we met was ‘Introduce yourselves to the mayor.” If you want something done, and you’ve got a good relationship…

Dick: They’ll also put you in contact with the right people. One of our first things that happened to us in our first couple of weeks, we broke down just outside the village in a little car that we had. The first people to stop and help us were the workers from the village. They were there to help us, because we were on their patch, even though we had a British number plate. The mayor and the locals care about our village so much. They help each other, they help the village. You go along to buy bread at the boulangerie on Sunday morning, all the old ladies are out there on their way to church, everybody’s talking to each other, it’s a really strong community feel.

Angel: Therefore you have to jump in to their way of life. I think that’s where the problems sometimes lie for newcomers, if they don’t do that.

 

How have the kids taken to life in a chateau?

Dick: Where else can they actually play on their scooters in the front hall? They’ve got a room with a helter-skelter in it. And when we go out on an adventure, build a little fire and cook beans and sausages on our land, near the place where the wild boar are, it’s Swallows and Amazons with a 21st Century feel for our children. I think that is all we can ask for, for them. I think they get it. They like living here, but they know they’re lucky to live here, and it’s taken a lot of work to get here.

Angel: We instil that into them every day. They’re very lucky and privileged, and we’re probably a bit stricter with them as a result.

 

Now you have your own chateau, have you thought about getting your own coat of arms?

Dick: Yes and no. What has happened is the coat of arms which we inherited here does actually have something that can be translated to look like strawbridge. There seems to be a little bridge with little lines on it and things, so we shall see. I think we’re one step away from getting our flag up there, though we’ve got two flagpoles that my mum gave me that I haven’t put up yet. When we get the flagpoles up, then we’ll have to have a coat of arms to put up there, won’t we?

 

Did you get chateau envy when you saw other people’s chateaux?

Dick: Absolutely not. We saw bigger ones, they were all more expensive, but ours is perfectly formed and rather cute – that’s the way we look at our chateau.

Angel: Yeah, it definitely is. I loved a chateau that a family called The Pethericks had bought. And I did use the phrase “I’ve got chateau envy”. But I would never swap this chateau, because this was made for us.

Dick: Somebody actually asked if we’d ever do up another chateau. I said “Don’t be so stupid!” The bottom line is, you don’t flip chateaux. You put your entire life into it. It was nice to see other people’s ones. Ours isn’t the oldest or the biggest, but actually, for us it’s home now, completely home.

Angel: I loved seeing other people’s chateaux, and I loved seeing the old wallpapers that they still had up. Someone had fantastic fabric curtains. I loved getting tours where we were shown around chateaux, seeing people’s passion for chandeliers or whatever they were into. I think that was one of the best bits for me, just finding out about people’s stories.

 

Obviously one never knows what the future holds, but do you guys anticipate you’ll be in that house forever?

Dick: I think I’d quite like to get planted here, not least because by the time we’ve done the last suite upstairs, which we’re doing quite soon, by the time we’ve finished it all up, Angel has managed to fill the whole chateau, and a lot of the outbuildings, and the thought of moving is unthinkable. We’ve filled a chateau, for goodness’ sake!

Angel: Without being too morbid, we are going to die here, because we can’t face the thought of moving.

Dick: We’ve got the granny flat across in the coach house. The stable has been converted into a granny flat, and then we’re doing the rest of the coach house for the kids, for when they’re older. At some stage we’ll all move around – and we’ll end up with Arthur or Dorothy taking over the chateau. I can see it working for a lot of generations.

Angel: Arthur’s just turned five, and he’s becoming quite a grown up boy with his own personality. He’s already asked if he can have the honeymoon suite as his bedroom. I told him he could have it when he’s ten.

 

Escape to the Chateau D.I.Y. starts Monday 9th April at 4pm on Channel 4