A Year at the Chateau: As seen on the hit Channel 4 show

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Channel 4 has been following and documenting their journey since 2015 when they bought the derelict château. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

Throughout A Year At The Château, the dark bold text is Angel telling the story and the normal text is Dick. They both retell the same event or situation in their own words and it's interesting to see how two people remember and feel differently about the same event or situation. Well-written, extremely engaging, and peppered with details and anecdotes from behind the scenes, anyone with even the smallest admiration for or interest in the Strawbridges will enjoy spending a few days poring over this book. So, whether you are looking for inspiration to tackle that big renovation project at your home, ideas on clever stylish decor or love the idea of living in France, or dream of a château life, then A Year At the Château book by Dick and Angel Strawbridge from Escape to the Château fame is definitely for you. Too much detail in some places (bathing and caring for children and food consumed) and not enough in others.They take turns reading a bit then there is a pause and Dick picks up from Angela which is a slight relief. Sharing their full journey for the first time, A Year at the Chateau follows Dick and Angel from when they first moved to France in the depths of winter and found bedrooms infested with flies, turrets inhabited by bats, the wind rattling through cracked windows, and just one working toilet, which flushed into the moat, through to the monumental efforts that went into readying the chateau for their unforgettable wedding and their incredibly special first Christmas. When the Strawbridges started looking for a place in France, they initially had their eyes set on a standard house. I simply love it when waiters are friendly and you can ask them for menu recommendations or new local events to attend. I would have liked a more "real" account of the struggles of owning and renovating a derelict château, managing a family and being essentially broke (their word).

Dick and Angel Strawbridge go into even more depth on their first year in the Chateau de la Motte-Husson, which they bought in pretty rough condition, and renovated on a budget. I did not sign up for a book about wedding planning but literally over half this book is them talking about their wedding, the food for the wedding, the clothes for the wedding etc etc it does not stop and for a moment if they start talking about the chateau or renovating again the sentence will end with something along the lines of “ but that can wait. There is no doubt, Angel is extremely good in her area of expertise (interior design and making things look outstandingly pretty), but there are times in her book she has struggled. Without it, I’m just reading a miserable tale of a woman left in a freezing chateau with 2 young children surrounded by millions of flies with no instructions from her husband on how to work anything. Like many couples, Dick and Angel had long dreamed of living in France, but where others might settle for a modest bolthole in the French countryside, the Strawbridges fell in love with a 19th\-century fairytale château, complete with 45 rooms, seven outbuildings, 12 acres of land and its own moat.

Their early confidence does take a knock as they realise just how rundown their dream house is, but you see them working together and gaining confidence.