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

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The charming, inspiring and remarkable full story of Dick and Angel Strawbridge's first year at the Ch a teau-de-la-Motte Husson. I'm always so curious about floor plans with this sort of thing, too, because they let me better imagine how spaces might have been used back when the building was built. Biography: Born in Burma, but raised and educated in Northern Ireland, Dick Strawbridge retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2001 before becoming a full-time television presenter and author (with arguably the best moustache in showbusiness).

Like many Brits, 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 chateau, complete with 45 rooms, seven outbuildings, 12 acres of land and its own moat.

I wouldn't make all the same design choices, but it's really fun to read all about what they did in much more detail than the TV show allows. As warm and entertaining as their much-loved show, A Year at the Chateau is a truly irresistible story of adventure and heart, epic ambitions and a huge amount of hard graft. Watching their children Arthur and Dorothy grow and the whole family thrive has been an absolute pleasure, you can see the love they have for each other and come across really well. We were getting married in two weeks, all our family and friends were coming to see us in our new home and we were entertaining a couple of hundred people in a château that hadn’t had running water or electricity eight months earlier.

When Nicola's husband, Dominic, retires they decide not to spend their days finding hobbies to fill the time until Countdown is on channel 4.I’m really interested in historic buildings and history so I guess I was hoping to get this out of this book but sadly I was wrong. First, this book is missing something essential for all memoirs but especially ex-pat memoirs — dialogue. Dick is just amazing at everything and I am truly in awe just watching how he manages to bring things to life. Read this book if you really want to know about their wedding invitations and the vintage napkins they set out.

I simply love it when waiters are friendly and you can ask them for menu recommendations or new local events to attend. Her accent doesn’t help but the most irritating thing is that she is obviously reading it from a their script. Examples of these include not being able to start or maintain a fire, struggling to change a gas bottle and being completely hopeless when it came to getting rid of a bat.Channel 4 has been following and documenting their journey since 2015 when they bought the derelict château. Throughout A Year At The Château, the dark bold text is Angel telling the story and the normal text is Dick. It's fascinating to get a behind the scenes look into life restoring an old Chateau, more detail and insight then even the show. Along the way you'll read glorious descriptions of rural life in France, with charming characters, delicious food and wonderful seasonal produce, together with the extraordinary list of renovations and restorations they completed, many of which were never shown on TV. I found Fizz, the youngest, to be the most amusing with her attempts to build a You Tube channel and to become an influencer.

Irreverent, witty and emotionally charged, Long's rollercoaster ride zones in with exquisite precision and perception on the dreams, despairs and dilemmas of all middle-aged women getting ready to say a final goodbye to their youth and looking forward to new beginnings. This book is a must read for anyone who is a fan of Escape to the Chateau or anyone who is looking to make their own Chateau dream a reality. I have been watching Escape To The Chateau since it's inception and have watched the chateau take on a whole new life. I've got a favourite recipe of my own for Mussels in Garlic and White Wine, but Angel's 'Sauce option 2' with coconut milk, ginger, chilli and fresh coriander is also delicious (page 70).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. Just recently I spent time again in the tiny charming Place de Furstemberg in Paris with its romantic lamp posts and elegant boutiques. We hadn't really followed the television series but (naively) assumed that this was a couple with a vision who had acted on their own. She also has a tendency to not credit her artists on later seasons of the show and on the Château's social media accounts, which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. As warm and entertaining as their much-loved show,A Year at the Chateau is a truly irresistible story of adventure and heart, epic ambitions and a huge amount of hard graft.