Original subtitles

I'm Dick Strawbridge and along with my wife Angel

and our two children...

Yay! Oh, well done.

..we've lived in this magnificent chateau for the past five years.

Look. Look. Look, look, look, look.

Oh, my God.

That is so beautiful.

It's not just our home...

And we're up!

..but our business.

You may kiss your bride.

CHEERING

And all over France, there are other Brits doing exactly the same.

Oh, my God.

We'll follow a new wave of intrepid chateau owners...

I'll open some windows, it might help get rid of some dust.

..and some familiar faces...

..as they take on these majestic buildings,

and we'll reveal more about our own chateau life.

Everyone ready? Yeah!

There will be triumphs...

This looks incredible.

Do you like it, Laura? I love it.

..and setbacks...

Oh.

..as they battle to renovate their homes...

..and earn their keep.

OK, I'm ready.

But no matter how hard the going gets...

This is probably my worst nightmare.

..they get to live the dream as custodians of their very own castle.

Today...

Lean it against the wardrobe. God, it's heavy, that.

..new chateau-owners work flat-out to be guest-ready.

I might have to have a little lie-down in a minute. Shall we?

Not that sort of a lie-down.

At another chateau, wedding preparations are lavished in lace...

They're my best curtains!

..much to the bride's dismay.

I hope it doesn't look like a washing line.

And one couple dig for hidden treasure.

Very possibly there is treasure right below my feet right now

and we're going to be getting our tickets to go to Barbados.

All over France, lots of Brits are working hard

to keep their chateaux up and running.

And for some, their dream journey is just beginning.

Take the stately Chateau Gioux, nestling in over five acres

of countryside at the edge of the Millevaches Park in Central France.

Yorkshire couple Debbie and Nigel recently sunk everything

into buying it for £280,000.

I think fortune's smiled on us... It has, it has.

..and we're in the right place at the right time. Yep.

And it became available, it was meant to be.

It was meant to be. It was meant to be. Definitely meant to be.

Located 30 miles east of Limoges, Debbie, who ran a farm shop

and Nigel, a bar manager, have recently moved in.

Right, we're here.

Looks really good.

Bit of work to do, isn't there? But we'll get there.

The chateau needs some serious renovation, but to pay for that,

Debbie and Nigel need to open as a B&B as soon as possible.

We've never run a B&B before, so, yes, it's completely new to us.

We're both very much looking forward to having our first guests.

Yeah, we're really looking forward to it.

We're looking forward to some money.

Their first guests arrive in one week,

so they need to get three rooms ready.

In the main bedroom,

they've created an en-suite by knocking through a wall,

and made an entrance inspired by the story

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Brilliant. That's going to look good. Yeah. Happy with that.

Today, Debbie's getting creative with some stencils

to bring the wardrobe to life.

I'm going to put a lion on each of the top panels

and then to complete it, I've got two little lion-head door handles.

First, the forests of Narnia.

Stencils are a cheap and easy way to make furniture unique.

Last time I did this was circa 1985.

So, yeah, hopefully, I haven't lost my technique, but we'll see.

The green I've got now, I was hoping to go for a slightly darker one.

I'm not sure how much it's going to show up on the green of the door,

so fingers crossed it is going to...

It is going to work.

Oh, yeah, you can actually see it, which is good.

You don't seem to have lost your touch, Debbie,

and your artwork has one admirer already.

TJ was a very antisocial cat at home in North Yorkshire.

He's just turned into a completely different personality,

so he's obviously liking the French lifestyle.

Well, that's chateau life for you.

Hope I can get it off now. That's the...

There we go.

Yeah, I think that looks absolutely fine.

Magical.

And it seems the post has arrived in perfect time.

Here we go. Has he been? Oh, brilliant.

Ow, wow, look at that! What do you think?

That's great. Do you think it works?

Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah?

So these are the lion-head door handles.

Oh, wow, look at that.

They're cute, aren't they? Yeah, I like that.

Do you want me to put them on now?

Yeah, put them on now.

How's that? I think they look great. They look good, don't they?

That's a good buy. It's going to look nice, Nige. Well done!

Great stuff.

Only the lion stencils to add, and it will really look the part.

115 miles away is the 19th-century Chateau de Brives.

Built by a Cognac baron, it has 25 rooms and sits in 30 acres of land.

Antique dealers Sarah and George bought the chateau for £415,000

and have spent the last nine years renovating it into their dream home.

I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be a chatelaine

and I'm sure George was absolutely destined to be,

so his dream's come true.

Thank you. It suits me very well.

He just needs the crown.

Situated seven miles from Cognac, in south-west France,

the couple are aiming to turn their home into a wedding venue

to help with the chateau upkeep and general living expenses.

We don't have any experience at all of hosting a wedding,

but I'm hoping we're going to learn pretty quickly. Yeah.

They started by winning over wedding planner Samantha...

What an incredible place.

..to help get the new business off the ground.

So, it's our main salon.

OK. I think it looks great,

but it does look like a family house.

I do feel you need to declutter.

And with the help of my Angel, Sarah learnt how to use her love

of antiques to create a unique table display.

I think it's looking lovely.

I think it's absolutely beautiful.

We've used your stuff, yeah? Yes.

Now they've decided to create a photo-shoot

to help drum up some business,

essential if they're going to get a wedding booking THIS year.

We've waited a long time to get any photographs of the salon.

It just shows people more of what they're going to get. Yeah.

It all gives them a far better idea

of what they're letting themselves in for. Yeah.

To make sure it goes off without a hitch,

they're using a team of professionals.

Hi, I'm Sarah. We haven't met before, have we? Hello, Sarah.

Samantha's brought in make-up artist Claire,

florist Lisa and assistant India.

Hi, Indy, how are you?

Well, that's pretty much all of us for the moment.

Perfect. Perfect.

The model bride and photographers are on their way,

so Sarah shows the team where they can set up.

So this will be the bride's dressing room in here.

The girls can get dressed in here today,

we can do hair and make-up in here today.

That would be nice, the light is lovely. Yeah, yeah.

I am anxious to get the first wedding booked,

but with these fantastic photos,

with the effort that everyone's put in, I'm sure we'll find a couple

who would love to get married here.

Um, and then the sky's the limit, what's going to happen after that.

While the team gets on with prepping for the shoot,

Sarah's giving table decoration a go,

having learnt a thing or two from Angel.

I really liked what she did.

I'm going to try and copy.

And I definitely wouldn't have known how to decorate candlesticks

and the rest of the table.

And be a bit more adventurous, actually.

It's one of those things that Angel makes look so easy,

and I'm kind of all fingers and thumbs.

Glad you've taken Angel's lesson to heart.

And George seems to approve.

Oh, that's lovely.

Oh, thank you, do you think so, honestly? I do.

I'm really pleased with that, and I love those.

The which?

The way they cascade down.

I would never, ever have thought of doing that myself.

I love the purple daffodil flowers.

They're beautiful.

Well done, Sarah.

Angel would be proud.

We've got high hopes.

It's terribly important that it goes well today. Goes well, yeah.

With the backdrop decorated, and the model dressed up,

the photo shoot can start.

Local car enthusiasts have even brought along their classic cars

to add some style.

Love the Moggy Minor.

Yes, that looks very nice.

Perfect.

Don't you dent it!

It's a bit like having a wedding, in a sense. Yes.

So many people around and, you know, the bride coming down the stairs.

Yes, it's a really good feeling.

I've never seen the house look so beautiful, so... No.

And that's thanks to everybody who's been here today, so, yeah.

Really, really chuffed.

Bye.

A successful day, now let's hope those publicity photos

turn today's mock wedding into a real one.

Coming up,

at one chateau...

"Turn chapel into forest."

..wedding plans get out of hand.

OTT - over the top.

And at Chateau Gioux...

Try my new toy out. Oh, right.

My new laser. Oh.

Ooh.

..Nigel tries another nifty tool.

So what are you doing, then?

I don't know.

Let's do it the old-fashioned way, shall we?

The stunning 16th-century Chateau de Lalande sits in 60 acres of land

and even has its own chapel.

There are 40 rooms, which have been lovingly restored

over the 13 years Stephanie has owned it.

It was definitely love at first sight when I saw Lalande.

I hope it was love at first sight the other way round, as well,

but she's not making it clear.

Located in Centre-Val de Loire, 53 miles from Limoges,

Stephanie now runs it as a B&B as well as putting on events.

It's always lovely to see people arriving for the first time

and to see the chateau anew through their eyes.

And in just ten days' time,

she's putting on the MOTHER of all events.

Just the thought, "What do I have planned for my mother's wedding?",

just fills me with dread cos there's so much to do.

Stephanie's recruited live-in chateau helper Marie

to help her finalise decoration ideas for the chapel.

Well, there's a lot to do in here.

Couple of centrepieces here.

Um, yeah.

Maybe we could do a bit of vases of flowers just in the...on...

..by the door? Yeah. Yeah?

Eeh! Eeh! It's so heavy.

Stephanie's found an original chandelier that could be used.

And it's for real candles, which would look so pretty.

Yep.

Maybe we could have big branches in here. Yeah.

Sort of tree-like inside the chapel. We could do that.

That would hide a lot of the bird poo on the walls as well.

Trees in the chapel? A novel idea.

I wonder what Isabelle will think of that.

Turn chapel into forest - Marie.

MARIE LAUGHS

There we go. That's your job.

What? Forests? Why are you foresting the chapel?

We thought it would be wonderful to have tall trees as you go in.

OTT, over the top.

Are we doing torches around here for the evening? Yes.

For the wedding breakfast,

Stephanie is creating an extra special alfresco dining area

by building a pergola across

the 30-metre terrace and draping it in lace.

We will build a pergola frame over

and chandeliers hanging down from the pergola.

You will arrange flowers.

What were you thinking for the flowers with the frame?

Um, just hanging lots of greens from the forest.

The scale of how much needs to be done in ten days

has absolutely hit now.

Plated food, yes.

The most challenging job,

because it's the most structurally difficult job,

is transforming the terrace.

Lace to source -

we still don't have enough lace to make a ceiling.

Chandeliers to rig up, mirrors to put up.

But we'll need hurricane lanterns for the candles.

I am pretty anxious

that all those things are going to take an awful lot of time,

but it's reassuring to know that there is a plan.

I like plans. Me too, Isabelle.

Let's hope it goes to plan -

the terrace transformed and the chapel decorated

before the big event in ten days' time.

37 miles south, at Chateau Gioux,

Debbie and Nigel have only a week before they open their chateau

to their first paying guests.

Come on, then, here we go. Oh.

At the moment, there's nowhere for them to sleep.

Nigel's job, when it comes to dressing rooms,

is basically lifting anything heavy...

Lift your end up.

You OK?

..putting screws in walls, hanging things up,

and then the rest of it is down to me.

So, I'm the dresser of rooms.

Lean it against the...

God, it's heavy, that.

Debbie and Nigel need to put together a brass bed

they brought with them from the UK.

Good, that's one done.

Putting the bed up isn't the biggest job.

The biggest job is fitting the ciel de lit above the bed,

which is the...basically the drapes at the side.

Um, so that's the thing I'm most concerned about.

OK. Yep.

DEBBIE LAUGHS

Perfect. Come and have a sit.

No, no time for resting, come on.

No napping on this job, Nigel,

you've still got to put the bed and side tables in place

to work out exactly where that ciel de lit should hang.

Right, I'll mark the centre of the bed.

Doesn't need to be exact. Yeah.

Well, the thing is, if it's not exact,

we can always shift the bed a little bit...

Move the bed across a bit. Yeah.

..to cheat, can't we? Right, are you getting up, then?

I'm just going to take my shoes off.

I might have to have a little lie-down in a minute.

Shall we?

Not that sort of a lie-down.

Ah, dear.

Come on.

I just want it to drape to the side and just look a little bit...

Right. ..a little bit special.

Let's have a look. All right, so that's about the centre.

So, that's going to be... Higher, lower?

Hang on, hang on, I'll tell you in a minute.

I just need to look at it from the back as well. So...

Yep, that's fine.

I need a longer...a longer tool.

What do you need? I need my long spirit level.

Won't the tape measure do? No.

Every time we do something,

Nigel does 25 trips up and down, up and down.

"I need this, I need that."

And I always say to him, "Have you got everything you need?

"Yep, yep." And inevitably, he hasn't, so...

But it does him good, it's good exercise.

A man after my own heart, Nigel has a tool for everything.

Thought I'd try my new toy out. Oh, right. My new laser.

Ooh. Mm.

So, what are you doing, then?

I don't know.

Let's do it the old-fashioned way, shall we?

So, your new toy doesn't work, Nige? My new toy doesn't work.

But it would do, if I knew what I was doing.

But I don't, so it won't.

DEBBIE LAUGHS

Don't give up, Nigel, have another go, mate.

NIGEL DRILLS

Right.

Oh, perfect.

Right, would you like to pass up the shelf?

LAUGHS: Shelf?

A ciel de lit, Nigel.

You'll get the lingo.

How about that?

Is it on? Does that fit?

That's amazing.

Yeah, that looks good. Central.

You've got your Bedknobs and Broomsticks

and you've got your witch wardrobe.

All very theatrical.

And no fairy tale would be complete without a magic mirror.

How's that?

And some gold trimmings.

OK, how's that?

That looks great. I really like that, Nige.

I tell you what.

That looks good for a bargain, doesn't it?

Five euros for those each... Five each...

..and ten euros for the mirror. Yeah, exactly.

They were a find. Less than 20 quid for the lot.

Now, just the bed to make up.

This is my favourite bit, I like the dressing...

..the dressing-up of rooms.

Yeah, it's good fun.

That's the one.

Are your hands clean? Yes.

Are you sure?

I'm not going to put it right across, I just want it halfway.

OK.

Across the bottom of the bed, Nige.

OK?

OK, that's good. Good job.

Nigel will give me opinions on what he thinks about colours and stuff.

But then I just do what I like.

In that room, we've managed to get everything sort of in place

that we wanted to do.

You could walk in there and stay

and I wouldn't be concerned about how it looks now.

I think it's coming together. Yep.

It certainly is.

Where do you want it? On here, this wall?

Yep, against that wall.

They've also managed to pick up some bargains

for one of the other guest rooms.

How much was that? Ten euros, I think. Ten euros?

Every euro helps,

especially when you've stretched yourselves to get this far.

I think the chateau will grow organically with us,

because at the moment, we can't afford a huge amount

of extra furnishings, really.

To add a bit of colour, we've just gone for a nice red cotton throw.

Oh, wow. What do you think?

Hey, that looks fantastic.

Oh, Deb, this is really coming together, now.

I could sleep in here.

You might be. I'd pay good money to sleep in here.

LAUGHS: I might be.

After today, we've got two rooms ready for action.

So, guests can walk in there and they're ready to go.

So, that's a good feeling.

Indeed.

Always great when you've ticked something else off your list.

115 miles away at Chateau de Brives, near Cognac...

OK, one, two, three.

Perfect.

..Sarah and George have had their wedding publicity photos taken

as they need to secure a booking for this summer.

Now it's time to decorate one of the rooms which will be

used during the weddings -

the salon.

I'm very much hoping that it will really look that much better

when it's finished.

And it needs more than just a lick of paint.

All the cracks have to be filled in and chalked,

do all the preparation, all the filling.

And the fact that it's all panelled, it's quite a challenge for us.

They're curious to know what colour the original panels used to be,

so they've called in painter and decorator Vincent

for a bit of advice.

He's a local Brit who's worked on numerous historic buildings.

Right, let's just see if we can get a bit of this off.

You've got two colours there, actually. Have you?

Yeah, you've got that darker grey. Yeah.

And you've got the lighter grey.

You've got the topcoat, that's the next coat.

Yeah.

And that's the original. Yeah.

You've only got three coats of paint on there.

So, that's quite unusual, really?

It is, yeah, for a property this age,

normally there would have been layers and layers of paint.

Yeah, OK. Let's get cleaning.

As Vincent has established there aren't too many old layers,

it means they can paint on top after a good scrub.

Now I can see the grime.

It's quite extraordinary, isn't it? Yeah.

I think it's fabulous, watching these men doing the cleaning,

I think you should keep going.

By the time we've finished, you probably won't have to repaint it.

LAUGHS: Looking better already, it was just dirty.

Now it's clean, they can try out some samples.

I can tell you already I don't warm to that colour.

Well, it's for you to get an idea of the colour. Yeah, yeah.

Good call. I usually leave those details to Angel as well.

Do that underneath? Yep.

Oh. Oh, gosh, that's really close to what's there.

I find the first one too creamy.

Do you? Or... What do you?

Let it try and see what happens. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Ahh.

Looking interesting. I quite like that colour.

Yeah, I like the colour.

Let's just wait for it to dry a minute.

Well, certainly for me,

the darker colour grabs my eye a lot more than the pastels.

And I think with the fact that there's so much light in this room...

Yeah, I think the darker colour with the light,

I think is the colour we'd go for.

Palette picked, now just the rest of the room to prep.

Four weeks later,

the salon is ready for its long-awaited re-decoration

to make it fit for a chateau wedding.

Come on, then, darling. Can't wait to see the paint on.

Let's start putting on some topcoat.

Do you want...? Shall I do bottom?

You do bottom, I'll go up the ladder.

You think you can do it quickly, but actually,

it takes one or two days just to clean one wall,

so there was a lot to do.

George likes to do the big areas,

and then I get called in to do the fiddly bits.

Sarah always says that I'm the bodger.

SARAH LAUGHS

So, I like to do something and think, "Ooh, that looks nice

"and it hasn't taken long."

Yes, George likes speed and I like to do it kind of properly.

And what is nice when you're doing this kind of job

is you really get to see the detail of the craftsmanship.

Like those little things, there.

I just think it's so incredibly sweet.

I think the change is already fantastic.

Yeah, it looks so much better.

It shows the detail far better. Yeah, definitely.

It was so dirty before, it was greasy and...

It's one solid colour, which is so much better.

..now it's starting to really... Yeah, it looks lovely.

..really look grand again.

Nothing like a fresh coat of paint to bring it back to life.

It's very good.

Yeah, I'm just finishing off this bottom. OK.

Yeah, yours looks quite blotchy.

SARAH LAUGHS

But that could be the light.

I was certainly faster. Was I better? I don't know. We'll see.

We'll have to wait until it dries. We'll see when it dries.

We've got a lot of things to do in a lot of places.

But we've just got to get on and do it.

Yeah, we just have to put our minds to it, we'll get there.

That's the spirit.

One wall down, just three more to go.

Coming up, at Lalande, the bride-to-be butts in.

Why not another band there?

But her sister sends her packing.

Non. Come on, disappear. Thank you.

And at Chateau Gioux...

Hi. Welcome.

..Debbie and Nigel greet their first guests.

God, that's amazing. You like it?

Yeah. That's brilliant. It really is nice.

Back at Stephanie's, in central France,

preparations are under way for her mother's wedding,

in just three days' time.

Dream team of lace here.

A pergola has been constructed on the terrace, where the

wedding breakfast will be held.

And now it's down to Stephanie to decorate it, using over 80

metres of lace, with help from Aunt Chantelle and live-in helper Marie.

We are trying to use all the spare lace in the charity

shops of France to make a lace cover here, because I would like to

make a nice tented effect of lace and greenery and chandeliers

and just this beautiful wonderland for the table, for the dinner.

Sounds like a great way of re-using old curtains.

Not so sure what Isabelle will think, however.

Hello, sister. My best curtains!

LAUGHTER

It's a bit late. You don't need them.

It's a bit late.

They're my best curtains. We made a managerial decision, Isabelle.

Oh, my God. They had to be cut.

Lots of borders, fantastic.

We should use the borders as borders.

I hope it doesn't look like a washing line.

Getting it down again is going to be a laugh.

Stephanie... I'll just rip it off.

Why not another band there?

No. No. Isabelle, let your daughter decide.

Yes, I will let her decide, as long as she decides what I suggest.

Come on, disappear.

Thank you.

Stephanie has such big ideas and...

But she has no or very little notion of time.

And at the last minute, it is a rush, rush, rush,

and so I am slightly concerned about the ability to have

everything tied up in a pretty knot at the right time.

How is it possible that this fits so perfectly

and we didn't measure any of it?

I admire people's enthusiasm,

doing so much work for the wedding of two elderly people.

I hope we don't pop off a month or two after the wedding.

Bit up from that. Whoa, careful of the wire.

Two days later, with just 24 hours to go until the wedding,

Stephanie's had a change of heart.

I've annoyed everybody by thinking that actually, it might be nice

if the lace was flat as a ceiling, so all the lovely things that

have been put up are now being opened out and flattened across.

It's a blessed relief for us all.

My mother's gone to have her nails done.

She can't even text us instructions while she's having them done,

so it's complete peace and quiet in the house

and we can get on and make everything beautiful.

Stephanie's also decorating with ivy from the garden.

Using plants from your own grounds is exactly what Angel would do

to great effect.

It's actually looking quite good.

I just feel like I'm in a jungle canopy right now.

To make sure she gets everything done on time,

close family friend Gerry is also drafted in.

See when I used to be an altar boy?

SHE LAUGHS

You practising for tomorrow?

Now for the piece de resistance - outdoor chandeliers.

It looks amazing.

I wish it could just stay outside all the time.

No, you don't. Yes, I do. No, you don't. Yes, I do.

Is that OK?

That's beautiful.

Well done, chaps, it's looking good.

But with less than 24 hours to go until the wedding,

and the chapel still to decorate, you can't rest on your laurels yet.

37 miles south, it's a busy day for new chateau owners Debbie and Nigel,

as they're launching their B&B.

It's our guests' arrival at teatime tonight, so.

Yeah, quite nervous, actually.

It's quite a big day. It's a very big day.

Sadly, their Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe-themed room is

missing its roar.

So the one disappointment is that the lion stencil hasn't arrived.

It's had to be reordered, but it's not going to be done in time

for our first guests, so that is a bit of a disappointment.

It's turned into a bit of a joke now,

the lion stencil has got bad vibes.

"Where's the lion stencil?"

Missing stencils aside, there are still some finishing touches

Debbie wants to do in the room.

So these two tables came from a brocante.

They're quite plain and I felt they needed a little

bit of something to make them a bit more fitting for a chateau.

So I discovered this gilding wax, and it just gives a little

bit of gold effect without being completely overpowering.

It does the job and it does it on a budget, which is again,

obviously our criteria.

Glad to see Debbie's taking a gold leaf out of Angel's book

and beautifying as cost-effectively as possible.

Yeah, I'm really pleased with it.

So you should be, and just in the nick of time.

A few hours later and their first paying guests arrive,

who are travelling down to Spain.

Hi.

Hello.

Welcome.

How are you? Hi, Denzel, are you all right? I'm all right, yeah.

One of the chaps is a friend of Nigel's from the UK.

Hi, Neil. Good to see you all. What a place this is.

Do you like it?

Come on in.

At last, they can start making some much-needed income.

In just six weeks, they've turned a bedroom into an en-suite,

with a magical Narnia-style entrance through a wardrobe.

And they've given the others a colourful new lease of life.

This is Vassiviere room. Wow.

God, that's amazing.

You like it? Yeah.

Very happy here for the night.

Yep? Yep. Nice and comfortable for you.

No, it's brilliant, really is nice.

This is the room that we've knocked through,

obviously, with a nod to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

So that's the way through into your en-suite.

God, this is absolutely brilliant.

Isn't it? Yeah.

I didn't expect that.

Didn't you? There you go, then.

So that's your room.

Great stuff, thank you.

Hopefully, the others will like theirs. All right?

Thank you very much. I'll leave you to it.

I thought it was absolutely amazing.

The attention to detail was second to none.

That was a really nice reaction. Very positive.

Yeah, for us, this is an important first step.

It's a very important first step.

We'd like regular weekly guests, to be able to sort of carry on...

..carry on renovating.

Cheers. Here's to a good holiday.

Cheers, guys. All the best. To a good holiday. Cheers.

In terms of what's next, for the big part of the renovation,

is the orangery at the back of the chateau.

Which, at the moment, it's currently a little bit of an eyesore,

it doesn't fit in, so there's a lot to think about on that one,

so we need to think carefully as well, don't we? Absolutely.

Let's hope those bookings keep rolling in

and they can restore the orangerie back to its former glory.

115 miles away, near Cognac...

Is that quite nice? Can you see that?

..Sarah and George have finished painting their salon ready to

launch as a wedding venue.

It is difficult to get it all in, isn't it, actually?

Now their pictures need to do it justice.

Look. I think that's quite nice.

Yeah, that's nice. Maybe a bit too much ceiling.

No, it's good. That's quite nice, actually.

Today, they're putting wedding business plans on hold...

Let's find this room.

..in favour of a money-making whim they've harboured for years.

When we bought the house, we realised quite

quickly that the cellars mirror the upstairs of the house.

And the dining room, this room here, there was no access to get

underneath the dining room, every other room, you can get

underneath, this one you can't, so we thought that was very peculiar.

It does seem a bit odd.

Because the chateau was built by a Cognac Baron, George has a theory.

All the best cognac was hidden before the Second World War.

Now, I'm hoping to find a room, and if it's been blocked up,

there must be some kind of reason why it was blocked up, so.

My logic would be it would be full of cognac.

Very possibly, there is treasure right below my feet right now,

and very possibly, by the end of the afternoon,

we're going to be getting our tickets to go to Barbados.

That'd be nice.

Some vintage cognac can fetch £10,000 a bottle.

Time to start their treasure hunt.

What kind of a size hole are we talking about here?

Well, to start with, just like that.

Oh, OK. And then you have to get bigger and bigger

so we can get a camera through.

To solve the mystery, they need to drill through the metre-thick wall.

Salut. Salut. Ah, bonjour, Davide.

Bonjour, George. Bonjour, Sebastian.

So they've called in a favour from local stonemason Davide

and his pal Sebastian.

That's what we need.

That's a big boy. Ahh. Superb.

Look at that. Even bigger.

Let the treasure hunt begin.

Yeah, why not?

Having worked out where the dining room above is,

they're planning to drill a big enough hole to put a camera

through and see what's on the other side.

So, there's no soil. So that is a good sign.

Soil would mean no unearthing a mystery room.

We've gone through the wall, which is one metre,

and there's no evidence of foundations or soil, which is

evidence that there's a space there.

So, yeah, once we make this hole bigger... We can see.

..we can put a camera through or shine a torch and see

if we can find something. It's looking good.

It's looking as though there's something there. So, keep on going.

A short while later, there's a hole big enough to shine a torch through.

You see anything, Georgie?

So the material that they're finding here is more recent than

what would've been used to construct the house.

So, maybe this is where they did block it up for some reason,

more recently.

You can tell from what he's finding the style of how it was done.

And he's saying if you were a proper mason,

it wouldn't be done like that.

And so it was done in quite a hurry.

The plot thickens.

So maybe someone did do a rush job to hide the booty.

I can't wait to find out.

Coming up, Isabelle checks out her wedding chapel...

How lovely! How lovely.

But the inevitable doubt set in.

Don't know if that's a bit of a Pagan twinge.

Well, I like that. I see you as slightly Pagan.

Yeah, but the priest is not.

And Sarah and George have a breakthrough...

So, we're through.

..in their hunt for hidden treasure.

It'll be time to put the little camera in and have a look.

In south-west France, Sarah and George are still on the hunt

for hidden treasure in the cellar.

They're getting close to finding out

if there's a stash of cognac hidden in a secret room.

So we're through.

OK.

Shall we try and put the little camera in and have a look?

You hold the torch.

So, shine the torch in.

Rather than the hidden room filled with cognac they were hoping for,

it seems to be a room filled with rubble.

The roof is made of a huge piece of stone.

Exactement, oui.

But I don't think it's resolved.

Well, it's not resolved, but that's as far as we can really go.

I know, how far can you go?

So it remains a mystery as to why the room was blocked up.

Non. Non, non.

Oh, well, no trip to Barbados, so time perhaps to return

to getting your wedding business up and running.

Over in Central France, at Stephanie's,

it's the day before her mother Isabelle's wedding.

So it looks as though Gerry's on candles, you're on trees. Oh, no!

She's roped in Gerry and friend Michael

to help decorate the private chapel, where the blessing,

in front of family and friends, will take place.

What trees do you want in here?

I was just sort of imagining...

..maybe two trees?

Stephanie wants to bring the outside in, by using natural foliage,

something my Angel has made a theme throughout our chateau

when we host weddings.

These hydrangeas are great because they are still fresh,

but they're starting to dry.

It's a resourceful technique, which always looks impressive

and saves the pennies.

So we're going to put two trees here. Yes.

Are we going to put lights in anywhere?

Oh, let's put fairy lights in them. Yes.

But what I'm thinking, you have to be very careful,

if a Roman Catholic priest is going to be coming to perform the service,

if it's going to look a bit garish and a wee bit over the top,

it's got to look proper.

Gerald, are you suggesting that my decorative scheme would be garish?

Oh, just in time.

That's God.

Sorry, that's God.

"My dear son, Gerald, you are absolutely right."

Sorry!

And there's one other thing, which I think you're going to struggle with.

Could you just hang that back up?

No, Stephanie, that's dangerous, look.

If we put this up, we'll have a wedding AND a funeral.

Hmm.

Just say to the priest, "Can you do another wee quick service?

"While you're here. We don't want to light the candles again."

Yeah, OK. I really wanted that up. No.

But I think we're going to have to shelve that idea.

Yeah, very much so.

OK, we have to distract Mummy from the fact that that's not up.

Does she want it up? By big trees.

Well, she thought it was going up.

I think she'll understand, but big trees, lots of fairy lights.

Good, OK. Good, good, good thinking.

Shall we go and find a tree? Yep. Yep.

We're going to cut down something that your mother likes.

"Oh, no. It is my favourite."

"My favourite tree!"

Can we take that one, there?

Yes.

Might need a bit more weight at the bottom there, boys.

Round peg, square hole springs to mind.

"Can I have Percy and Isabelle? Are you here?"

Right.

Much better.

I think it's looking absolutely lovely.

I actually feel quite emotional, seeing it with all of these trees,

it's more beautiful than I thought,

but I hope my mother likes it.

All that's left is for the bride-to-be to give it her blessing.

What do you think? What do I think?

How lovely! How lovely.

But I don't know if there is a bit of a pagan twinge?

Well, I like that. I see you as slightly pagan.

Yeah, but the priest is not.

I don't want him to be offended.

Why would you be offended by a tree?

Because it looks a bit druidish. Dridish?

Druid-ish.

He's going to have a shock, he's an old man.

Shocked by a tree? I do like that.

Don't worry about the priest.

I think you're worrying too much about what other people will think

and not thinking about what you like.

All right, let's get on. OK.

Thank you, darling.

I don't know why my mother seems to think that the priest might

find trees evil, but I'll speak to the priest

when he arrives tomorrow and I'll be very surprised

if he does come to the conclusion that my mother is a druid.

I feel as though I've been working all day and haven't

really achieved anything, because nothing's finished.

I'm definitely going to be working all night, tonight.

There's no question.

I have to finish the chapel, I have to finish the terrace,

I have to put all the fairy lights on the terrace.

The cake, there's so much to do.

Not much shut-eye for you tonight then, Stephanie.

I look forward to seeing how it all goes tomorrow.

Next time...

Got my new comb. Oh, you've got your new comb, yeah.

..Debbie and Nigel have decorating differences.

I think that might look nice mounted on the wall.

It might detract from the paintings.

What do you think?

I don't want to detract from your paintings.

It's wedding day at Lalande...

Oh, Maman!

..but the bride has concerns over carriage flowers.

I just hope it doesn't tickle the horse's behind,

because then I could go at a frisk gallop.

And Sarah and George try not to put a foot wrong.

OK. OK, OK.

He's not happy with his team of English people, but...

I think he's all right.

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