We follow the Strawbridge family as they crash a car, eat calves heads and get married, all during their first year at the Chateau.
The Chateau – the blurb
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 fairy tale château, complete with 45 rooms, seven outbuildings, 12 acres of land and its own moat.
Throwing caution to the wind, Dick and Angel swapped their two-bedroom flat in East London for an abandoned and derelict castle in the heart of the Loire valley and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime with their two young children Arthur and Dorothy.
Sharing their full journey for the first time, A Year at the Château 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 château for their unforgettable wedding and their incredibly special first Christmas.
Escape to the Chateau
If you haven’t watched channel 4’s TV show Escape to the Chateau WHY HAVEN’T YOU? It follows Dick, Angel and their two children as they renovate their massive Chateau in France. Angel is my decorating style icon. I have the cushions, the china and often think ‘What would Angel do?’ when picking paint or wall hangings. I love their house almost as much as I’m drawn to them – I mean who doesn’t fancy living in France in a castle?
Aware of my Strawbridge obsession my hubby bought me A Year at the Chateau for Christmas. Being stuck in lock down once again, I devoured their first year living in a foreign country, discovering the countryside around them and getting to grips with life with no electricity.
Cook it, clean it, paint it
The book is written by both Dick and Angel and uses different fonts so you can easily tell who is who. Written in diary format the style allows Dick to go in to detail about pipe laying and Angel to explain how she found their first bath. It’s part DIY journal, wedding story and cook book (I loved the little recipes that popped up here and there). You can be reading about a trip to a French bakery one moment, what’s in season, how to print a wedding invite on a tea towel, or even where the poo shoot goes! Yet the randomness all holds together and reads really well.
What comes across in bucket loads is the Strawbridge’s love. For each other, their children, family and of course the Chateau. I’m totally jealous of them. The book (and the Chateau) is fab. If you like your lifestyle books you can also try local girl Sally Urwin’s about a year on her farm in Northumberland.