Escape to the Chateau DIY (2018–2021): Season 1, Episode 18 - The Wards - full transcript
Dick, voice-over: That's me
Dick Strawbridge,
my darling wife Angel,
and our two beautiful children.
Nearly 3 years ago, we upped sticks
for a whole new life in France
and bought this magnificent chateau.
Angel: Ohh! Aah!
Dick, voice-over: We've been doing it up ever since.
Angel: Baby, ah, you're so strong.
Dick, voice-over: Turns out we're not the only ones.
Angelina: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[Clatter]
Oops!
Dick: Dozens of Brits are taking the plunge
to rescue these stunning buildings.
Karen: Ohh!
What amazing colors.
Jonathan: We need to get on top of it,
get on top of the goats.
Dick, voice-over: In this series, we'll reveal more
on how we're running our chateau as a business...
Oop! Ahh! Back on dry land!
Angel: I'm still finding things that I haven't seen.
Dick: and we'll help these daring families run theirs...
Angel: Here's to the meeting of two like-minded couples.
- Yes. Cheers. - Cheers.
Dick: as they face the highs...
I'm absolutely terrified.
Dick: and lows...
[Engine sputters]
Woman: It's extremely expensive. It's financial suicide.
Dick: of running these gorgeous buildings
as everything from B&Bs to beautiful wedding venues.
Tanya: Owning a chateau isn't glamorous.
Ahh!
Tanya: Anyone who thinks it is is delusional.
Dick: Today, the stress of prepping a chateau
for an opening party takes its toll...
He lost 4 kilos in the last 2 weeks.
4 kilos. It's quite a lot.
Dick: but come the big night, it looks like
it might bring in some business.
- Your wedding, um... - My wedding. That's right.
I might have to talk to Martin about that.
- OK. - Ha ha!
Dick: At one chateau, a mother disagrees
with her daughter's plan to bring in
some much-needed cash.
I would never have done a party like this personally,
absolutely not.
It's great having my mother here,
but stress levels have risen because she's
never happy with what I'm doing.
Dick: One man's caravan renovation plans
take a backwards step...
Little bit of wood to be cut out
and sort of put in again, but--
Oops! And the floor. Ha ha!
Floor needs replacing, as well. Ha ha ha!
Dick: and a bride suffers prenuptial jitters
before her chateau wedding.
Gosh. Everyone's sitting down, not that I'm
panicked or anything now.
- Ahh. Oh, my goodness. - Oh, yeah.
Dick: This is the 18th century Chateau d'Humières,
and it's being renovated by British designer Nicole
and her Belgian boyfriend Stephan.
- How many rooms do we have? - No idea.
I don't think I've ever counted.
No. We were always focused on renovating them, huh?
Plus you have a short-term memory problem.
Because I never sleep, huh? Heh heh.
Dick: Located in the Picardy region
of Northern France, they've been working on it
for 3 years
after a chance encounter in a hotel.
Stephan, voice-over: I was sitting in the lobby,
reading a magazine.
I was like, "Ooh! There's a picture of my house."
All of a sudden, I got tapped on the shoulder
and looked up, and Nicole was standing there.
I said, "Do I know you?"
She answered, "You should because you're looking
at my house."
Nicole: I'd spent several years restoring a property
in the South of France.
It was photographed in this magazine,
so I just thought, "I'll give him a tap on the shoulder."
And then we ended up as a couple over here,
renovating a castle.
Dick: They're now converting it to an upmarket B&B.
Stephan: Needs to be generating money,
needs to be self-financing.
Dick: They were also planning to open a tea room
to start earning some money,
but after Nicole went to see my wife Angel for some advice...
Angel: You want to be a destination place
and bring 20 grand in a month.
Dick: she returned with some news for Stephan.
Nicole: The main things that I learned
was basically the bottom line is if we just
do a tea room, it's not a good idea.
Dick: So Nicole came up with a plan.
Now we're going to be concentrating on getting
the rental spaces decorated and ready.
Dick: She wants to focus on getting a B&B guest room
within the chateau finished, and as for the hall...
- Maybe as a breakfast room? - Exactly.
It could be perfect as a breakfast space, and then--
Stephan: Also for other types of events...
- Exactly. - or how do you see it here?
Use the room for other events.
It could be courses, it could be conferences.
Every other week, we'd plan a course.
Who knows? We'd have to think about that.
People can book it. People can then use the space.
Dick: So now they're rushing to get the hall...
There's been some plumbing issues.
There are holes in the floor.
Dick: and guest room...
Nicole: Putting up wallpaper.
It's taking ages.
Dick: ready for the summer.
Getting the electric cables into the walls
to put the lighting, connecting the electricity.
We're clearly not ready.
You know, we're just not.
Dick: But with their target deadline fast approaching,
their new plans have been thrown into chaos
with their application for a vital loan
from the bank rejected.
Nicole, voice-over: It was a complete blow,
which has affected how the work has been able to progress.
Had the mortgage come through, we'd have been able
to have some more people on board working faster,
getting things done.
You can imagine what a hole such a place creates
in your pocket, so it's really put
a lot of pressure on.
Dick: With no money to pay for extra workers,
Nicole and Stephan have had to work even harder
to try and get the hall and guest room finished.
This is the room we're gonna be renting out
so that we can have a little bit of extra income coming in.
OK. It's not ready now.
We've got some painting to do,
we've got curtains to put up.
Ha ha! There's a load to do, but we'll have it done.
We have to.
Dick: And they're making life even more difficult
by throwing a party tomorrow for friends and family
to kick off their new plans for the hall.
Nicole: This a bit of a practice run really,
see what kind of atmosphere we can create,
see how many people we can get to fill the space.
Dick: It all looks rather stressful.
4 kilos I lost already so far.
Yeah. He lost 4 kilos in the last 2 weeks.
4 kilos is quite a lot.
I mean, it's adding a bit of stress
because we've had to organize things in time,
but it's worth it, I hope.
Dick: With cash short, quick fixes and easy patches
are the order of the day.
We have this blank spot in between.
It's a big difference of height,
so we're just filling this up with concrete.
We're leveling it out,
and that we have a temporary floor
for when people come.
Otherwise, they might fall down.
Dick: Job done, but Stephan's looking exhausted.
Stephan: Last night, we get the 3 hours of sleep,
and now it's just getting through the day.
Each one you see, you just have to sort it out,
get it done, trying to survive until tomorrow evening actually.
Dick: But with just a day to go before the party,
there's still a mountain of work to do.
This is the 16th century Chateau de Lalande,
home to Stephanie Jarvis.
Stephanie, voice-over: I always knew that I wanted
to buy a chateau.
I think probably from the moment
I was reading fairytales as a child
it was really clear that's what I wanted to do.
Dick: Located in central rural France,
she and her friend Nick bought this place together
after pooling all their resources.
Stephanie: I had a two-bedroom flat in London.
He also had a two-bedroom flat in London.
He said it would be way more fun
if we sold both our flats and got maybe
a 4-bed terrace house in Arsenal with a garden,
and I was saying to him one night
"It's so depressing the things I'm seeing
"that we can afford with everything
"we've got pooled together, and I know
that for the same price we could buy a chateau in France,"
so I started looking.
We sold our flats and bought here.
Dick: The chateau cost her about £600,000,
not a bad price for a 500-year-old,
17-bedroom palace
with 60 acres of land,
a lake, and a private chapel,
but it needed a lot of work.
Stephanie: We redid all of the electrics,
all of the plumbing.
Had to put in septic tanks.
Obviously, all of the asbestos had to go.
We insulated every outside wall downstairs,
so big works.
The renovations were very expensive,
but then the maintenance costs start to hit,
and that I hadn't really thought about that much.
Dick: With bills to pay, Stephanie's come up
with two ways the chateau could generate some cash.
Stephanie: The chateau generates money mainly
through chambre d'hotes, B&Bs.
The chambre d'hotes is working more and more every year,
but by far, most of the business comes
through workshops.
We have maybe 6 a year.
Dick: The workshops are for groups of musicians,
who stay for a whole week.
She also has a long-term plan.
Stephanie: I want to make two new apartments
over the garages, and I'd like to rent
them as gites.
Dick: And to pay for this, she's launching a new event.
Stephanie: We want to try and start sort of
singles weekends, so that's the next big project
for this year.
Dick: She plans on hosting singles parties,
where 20 to 30 single people come to the chateau
for a weekend to meet, dine, and play games.
Stephanie: It's quite nice to just go away
somewhere in the middle of nowhere
and meet lots of other people around the same age group,
who are single and so wanting to meet lots of people, as well.
Dick: As a trial run, she's invited
30 close friends and family for an Easter weekend dinner party.
It's even got a theme.
Stephanie: Tonight is the under the sea
themed dinner, so I'm mainly doing fish
and lots of salads.
Dick: But the person she thought was helping
with the cooking can't make it.
And I can't cook.
My mother collects cookery books,
so I got every cookery book I could find.
I spent the whole night just going through cookery books,
looking for recipes.
It's not so much could things go wrong
as what will go wrong.
Dick: First job Stephanie takes on is
a simple garlic mayonnaise.
I may have broken the whisk.
Yes.
This is much better.
- Oh, maman. - Belle.
Dick: Stephanie's mum Isabelle, who's French,
has joined her daughter for the weekend.
Mayonnaise?
It's been a bit of a struggle.
The first machine was broken.
Second machine is working, but we're getting there.
That's the story of our lives.
You get here, something is broken.
Stephanie: Always.
She's much more organized than I am.
I think she finds the party quite stressful
because she just sees the work that needs doing.
I would never have done a party like this personally,
absolutely not.
Stephanie: Mummy doesn't understand how she had
a daughter like this.
No. I think there has been a big mistake at birth.
- A switch. - A switch.
I don't really understand why I am attempting
to make mayonnaise when there's so much to do.
Dick: Luckily, some of Steph's friends have arrived early
and help make a start on the decoration
for the undersea theme.
Man: So we've got our fabric,
but I'm not to sure how we're going to turn
this into waves.
Stephanie: Just tent it. Tent it so that it's,
like, hanging in waves like this.
Man: OK.
Dick: Her friend Michael doesn't seem convinced
by the underwater theme.
Michael: So I think this is gonna be a lot bigger
than I thought it would, and I'm not sure
it's gonna feel like we're under the sea.
Dick: O ye of little faith.
Back in the kitchen, Stephanie has
more pressing concerns.
Stephanie: Mummy has arrived not to save the day
with the mayonnaise as to criticize
the mayonnaise and tell me what the--
- Constructive. - Oh. Constructive criticism?
Yes, so that you can make it perfect.
I think it just needs salt.
I'm stepping away from the mayonnaise now.
I've just got to let it go.
Dick: That small bowl of mayo took over an hour to make.
Stephanie: I'm a big concerned that my timing's
been a little off.
This is the sort of thing my mother talks about
with, like, me not being very organized
but quite enthusiastic,
but the mayonnaise is done!
That's what matters.
Dick: Good for you, Stephanie,
but there's still tons to do to be ready
for tonight's party, which is scheduled
to start in two hours, by the way.
Stephanie: I still have to make my costume
and do my hair and make the pasta
and the canapes and the salads.
There's still a lot to do.
Dick: Chateau des Lys.
This mid-19th century austere yet beautiful building
was once a boys' school.
It's now run as a B&B by Brit Tim
and his wife Margreeth,
but they're not bringing in enough income.
Our biggest problem is that we have under capacity
during the summer, so we have to sort that out
because if we can get that together,
then life becomes a lot easier.
Dick: So they've got big plans.
Located just an hour's drive from Calais
in the picturesque Picardy region,
they think they're perfectly positioned to develop
a luxury caravan park and lease their gites
in a co-ownership scheme.
Tim: So we turned it really from a sort of
big, empty barn, which was lovely,
into something which you can live in.
I love it.
Dick: But all sales on the gites
have been on hold for the last 6 months
while Tim's battled a colony of bees
in one of their chimneys.
After multiple attempts to get rid of them,
today he's hoping they're gone for good.
Tim: Let's go and check.
Ah. Here. Ooh! Ahh! No. Seriously. Ha ha ha!
Well, I think the bees are gone.
Brilliant. Gite's safe,
and, uh, people won't get stung on their bum.
We have won the battle of the bees,
and they've all gone, so we can get on,
and we can sell the gite.
Dick: Their other project, the caravan park,
is still in its early stages.
They've got the first caravan in position,
but it's a sad, old thing in need of TLC.
Tim's replacing the outer wood and paneling
to make it weatherproof.
It's all secondhand wood from Holland,
and it's interesting.
In Holland, this stuff, they just recycle it.
You go to a breakage yard, pick some up,
and it's normally cheaper than buying new wood.
I can't find anything like this in France
that I can use, so all the wood,
which is quite a lot-- I've got enough here
to do the whole of this side--
has cost me about-- I think about 200 Euros.
We just sort of, you know, buy it, bring it down, paint it.
It's just got a nice weatherproof outside coat,
and I quite like it.
I mean, I quite like the fact that it's all
different, you know-- it's all old.
It also means it's seasoned, so that means it won't warp.
Dick: Yep. New or untreated wood will contain moisture.
Then when it dries out, it can twist, bow, or curl.
Tim just needs to make sure he regularly waterproofs his wood.
Tim: Some bits are easier than others.
This one bows in the middle, which is a shame.
Dick: Tim and Margreeth have got
their first guests arriving to stay in a month's time.
Tim: This is looking good. I'm quite happy with this,
but I'm almost to the stage where I can go inside this
and we can sleep in it.
Dick: Uh...almost.
Tim: the fire is in position, looking good.
We'll be able to light that soon.
It's just mainly cleaning.
It's been idling in the field now for quite a long time,
but it's watertight, so there's no
real damage anywhere.
The electricity's become a bit dated.
Halogens are out, LEDs are in,
so probably have to change a few bulbs,
and now we can get some beds in,
maybe get a little cooker, have a little kitchen.
Dick: Sounds like a fair bit of work to me.
Tim: There's a couple of rotten bits there,
but that's not disastrous.
Little bit of wood to be cut out
and sort of put in again, but--
[Crash]
Oops! And the floor. Ha ha!
Floor needs replacing, as well. Ha ha ha!
Dick: Better add that to the to-do list.
A 9-hour drive south of Tim's is another chateau,
Chateau de Brametourte.
This 1,000-year-old fort is home to Alison Ward and Paul Hunter.
Alison: When you buy a chateau, you think most
of your cost is done when you buy it,
but in reality, the costs are what happens
year after year after year as you start renovating
and trying to convert it into a business.
Based in the Languedoc region of France,
they want to make a living running it as wedding venue
so they can give up their jobs as HR and IT consultants.
Alison: It's been 10 years of graft,
10 years of having to travel and work
in different parts of the world and come back here
and do the renovations,
turning it into a an incredible environment for people
to have their weddings.
Dick: They've now finished the wedding terrace,
and tomorrow, it'll be used for its very first wedding.
Alison: Paul and I love turning the place
into something beautiful with wow factor
that our clients can really enjoy.
Dick: Today, the bride and groom have arrived.
- Wow! - Can't believe we're here.
Dick: James and Hannah have invited
over 30 family and friends to their wedding.
[Ding ding]
[Dog barks]
James: Ha ha ha!
Dick: With Paul away working, Alison is holding the fort.
Alison: Hello. James: Hiya. Hi.
This is Champus, isn't it? Hi, Champus. Hello.
Dick: Before they're shown up to their suite,
Alison wants the soon-to-be married couple
to take part in an ancient custom.
Alison: If I can just explain to you a tradition,
which is to say the Lord's Prayer.
- OK. - Got this sign
of the Knights of the Templar in front of the front door,
and that actually makes sure that you have
a future happy marriage, and it also blesses the house
at the same time.
- Is that all right? - Yeah. Sounds good.
Yeah. Lovely.
Alison: Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
on Earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
Hannah: Ha. James: I'll follow your lead.
- Our father... - who art in heaven...
- hallowed be Thy name. - Thy kingdom come.
- Thou will be done... - on Earth as it is in heaven.
Hannah: Amen.
Alison: And enter the house.
Dick: James and Hannah last visited Chateau de Brametourte
18 months ago when the bridal suite
was still being renovated.
Alison: Here we are through the old courtyard door
into the new suite of angels.
Hannah: Can't believe how different it is.
James: Wow. That's amazing.
Hannah: I love all the furnishings, as well. Lovely.
James: Wow. Alison: You've got
the balcony out there.
James: Of course, yeah.
Hannah: Oh, fabulous. James: Spectacular. Wow.
Hannah: The views are absolutely stunning.
- That is lovely. - When we came here before,
this balcony wasn't here at all.
It was literally just a hole here.
I'm really, really pleased.
So excited to stay here now. Ha ha!
Woman: Ha ha!
Dick: Over the next few hours, the rest of the guests arrive...
- Have you got both bags? - Yeah.
Dick: but unfortunately, it seems some of them
have some brought some typical British weather
along with them.
[Thunder]
Hannah: Part of the reason why we chose the South of France
was because of the weather.
You can never really go into the weather in the UK.
Just hoping that the sun comes out for us tomorrow. Ha ha!
Dick: With the storm forecast to last through tomorrow,
the big day, it looks like all Paul and Alison's
hard work developing the wedding terrace
may have been wasted for this particular wedding.
Just under 500 miles north at Chateau d'Humières,
it's all hands on deck.
It's really fun actually when everyone's
just mucking in and we're all working together
to get it done.
Dick: Nicole, Stephan, and their small team
of volunteers are racing to get the chateau's
main hall ready for the upcoming party tomorrow
and its new guest room open for business.
Nicole: It doesn't feel like the end is almost in sight.
There's still loads to do,
and I think as people get kind of more knackered
then a sort of hysteria sets in,
and then you start to get the giggles, I think,
which is great.
This looks much better or moved on.
Much closer to finishing touches,
which is the bit that I really enjoy.
Dick: Ever resourceful Stephan has a plan
to add a striking new feature to the hall.
He's acquired a beautiful ceiling rose.
This is a bit that came from another chateau,
a chateau not far away from here,
which regretfully was torn down for some reason,
and I think it will go very nicely in the entrance hall.
This is the fun part.
This is the preparation of the glue
to put the molding on the ceiling,
and it's actually a cement.
Sets in about 5 minutes.
Dick: You can't hang around with this stuff.
Stephan will need to get it up and in position
on the ceiling quickly.
Stephan: And it's like concrete when it sets.
Sort of making like a dough.
Sort of cooking.
Putting some on the sides so that it will hook
to the ceiling without falling down on us.
If you hold this, I will screw it.
Here. You like it?
I think it's brilliant.
- Know to fix? - I know how to fix it.
OK. Let me think.
Add a piece of wood.
[Screwdriver running]
Hoo. Make sure it has the time to settle.
My only concern actually the cement is actually
already hard.
Dick: Stephan leaves it in position for 5 minutes...
It seems to stay up.
Dick: and then starts to undo the plank
holding it up against the ceiling.
Nicole: Well, what if it doesn't stick?
Stephan: Never lucky.
Dick: At Chateau de Lalande, preparations are underway
for tonight's Easter party.
Owner Stephanie has plans to hold singles parties
to bring in more money, so tonight is a test run
with 30 close friends and family.
Half the guests are here.
The other half are about to arrive.
The rooms are readyish.
Dick: While she struggles with dinner,
her friends help decorate for the party's underwater theme.
Man: I'm hammering the nails into the beam
so we can put strings back and forth from it.
We're going to drape these pieces of material.
Those are hand-carved beams from about 1490.
So let's not destroy them in one go then?
- Yeah. - One nail per beam.
One nail per beam will be good.
Dick: In the kitchen, Stephanie not only has
lots more food to prepare...
I have to make another mousse,
and I have to make a pasta bake.
Yeah. There's a lot to do still.
Dick: she needs to get ready for the party herself.
Stephanie: I'm still a little bit concerned
about the fact that I still don't have a costume.
Dick: And with less than an hour until the party's
due to start,
with her decorations and cocktails nearly ready...
Woman: I need another bottle of blue curacao, I believe.
Dick: in the kitchen, tensions are rising.
Stephanie, I think you complicate your life.
A radish is a radish. Just serve the blooming radish.
Stephanie: Sorry.
Cucumber is cucumber. Serve the cucumber.
Stephanie: This is why my mother doesn't do the cooking.
You would get a radish, a cucumber.
Anything else on someone's plate?
Isabelle: A potato. Stephanie: A potato.
A radish, a cucumber, a potato.
I believe in healthy cooking. Ha ha!
It's great having my mother here,
but stress levels have risen
because she's never happy with what I'm doing
until it's done.
Afterwards, she'll be like, "Oh, you did so well.
That was really great,"
but every step of the way up until it's done,
there's a bit of micromanagement going on.
Let's face it. Without my presence,
there would be chaos.
There would be 20 of them in here.
Dick: It's 9 P.M., and the chateau is full
of hungry guests,
but at last, the food's ready if an hour late.
Stephanie: OK, everyone.
[Cheering]
It's time to come and eat. Bring your plates.
Dick: And it looks great.
Stephanie: It's been a hell of a lot of work,
and I didn't know that we'd get it all done,
especially when we spent an hour on the mayonnaise this morning.
Dick: Finally, Stephanie can enjoy herself for a bit.
Stephanie: Now I get to relax because I finished cooking
and Kim's cooking tomorrow.
Dick: The good news is one of Stephanie's friends
has volunteered to cook breakfast tomorrow.
The bad news--she's still got lots of other things to arrange.
Stephanie: I'm going to sleep when I finally get to bed.
I'm not sure when that's going to be.
Tomorrow morning, we have to be up.
Dick: Let's hope she's ready for action then.
But 320 miles north back in Picardy,
Tim and Margreeth's first caravan guests
arrive in 4 weeks' time.
The interior still needs renovating
plus the new hole in the floor.
Ahem!
But Tim's turned his attention to the fire pit outside.
I'm sort of envisioning it going around like this,
making a circle.
These are good, old rocks, aren't they?
Dick: The great thing about old chateaus
is there's usually a plethora of handy materials
just hanging about.
So I got a whole pile of stones.
I reckon it's probably part of the original paving
for the chateau, which is long gone.
My wheelbarrow will take 6 of those
before it starts breaking,
so we're gonna go backwards and forwards
with 6 at a time.
So the only problem with this system is
that there is a considerable distance
between the stones and the fire pit.
Hey. We need a lot more stones, I think.
Tim: We need a lot more stones, don't we?
Margreeth: So good luck Tim: Thank you.
I think two more after this, don't we think?
Margreeth: 3.
Perfect.
Dick: As Margreeth lays them into the circle,
Tim carries on with the donkey work.
[Tim wheezing]
Pchew!
Margreeth: It's really coming together.
Tim: Oh, oh, ho! It's great.
We need a full circle.
We are nearly there, aren't we?
Margreeth: Yeah. It looks so good.
Tim: Yeah. It does look good, doesn't it?
Looks much better than I thought it was gonna look.
Margreeth: Me, too.
Tim: Well done. Looks great.
That's it.
Dick: Margreeth's off to make a well-deserved cuppa
as Tim tests out his handiwork with the help of son Joe.
Tim: What do you reckon?
Ah. We got chocolate. Hey!
Joe: Can I have chocolate?
- Have you helped? - Have you helped?
Joe: Yes!
Margreeth: So this is working really well.
- It's lovely, isn't it? - It's really nice.
- Cheers. - Cheers. To the fire pit.
- Fire pit. - Well done.
Ha ha ha!
Margreeth: How far do you think before the caravan's finished?
Tim: What year is it? 2017, isn't it?
No, no. I think if I get a run of it,
um, I think I can do it in 2 or 3 days.
Dick: Tim's confident he'll be ready
for the first guests in 4 weeks.
Before then, I want to help them out,
so I've invited them to our place for a business chat.
- This'll be fun. - Yeah.
- Looking forward to this. - Me, too. Yeah.
Dick: Who knows? Maybe Angel and I can offer
them some helpful advice?
Tim: He seems to know what he's doing.
Margreeth: I'm obviously excited about meeting Angel.
Dick: Over 550 miles south at the opposite end
of the country, it's the day
before the first wedding of the season
at Chateau de Brametourte.
It's August, but you wouldn't think so.
We should get the fire going, shouldn't we?
Dick: All the hard work carried out developing
the new terrace by the pool for wedding receptions
could have been to no avail.
Alison: On the day, you can't plan for everything.
We've just got to find the best solution
and use the chateau and its grounds
to its best ability.
Dick: It's the morning of the wedding,
and the storm appears to have passed.
Bride Hannah is relieved.
Hannah: There was a bit of thunder and lightning
last night, torrential rains,
and the panic was really starting to set in.
Obviously, last-minute nerves and things,
but hopefully won't see any more of it today.
Dick: The storm has delayed the preparations.
A bit further back.
Dick: With the wedding just 5 hours away,
everyone's got a job.
Hannah: We've got 100 flags?
- Yeah. We can cut it. - We can always cut it.
Hannah: Yeah. OK.
I put all the beers in there now.
Hannah: OK.
James: We've got all the sparkling--
well, not all the sparkling, majority of sparkling in there.
Hannah: OK. James: That's the milk and teas.
Hannah: OK. Yes. Getting there.
James: One step forward. Hannah: Yes.
Dick: But an hour before Hannah walks
down the aisle, the weather worsens.
Alison: We've had such unusual weather conditions.
Last night, there was a tempest,
and now the wind seems to be getting up,
so we're just trying to work out what's
the best place to be serving the drinks and the canapes
to make sure they're not going to be blowing away.
Dick: Poor Hannah. Is her dream wedding
going to be a washout?
At Chateau d'Humières, Stephan's about to find out
if he successfully stuck a rose to his ceiling
or if he's about to be hit in the face
with 10 pounds of falling plaster.
Phew!
That's really nice.
Dick: The next day, the day of the party
after just a few hours' sleep,
Stephan's now got to find out if the ceiling
can withstand the weight of a heavy chandelier.
Stephan: So bring it up, you go on the scaffold boarding,
I'll give it to you, then we put it on the ceiling,
and then the ceiling falls down, OK?
Man: Ha ha! OK.
Stephan: OK.
OK.
We have to somehow attach these things.
Then we can pull this up.
Dick: The chandelier means a lot to Stephan.
Stephan: It's a pretty old chandelier.
This came out of the house of my grandfather's.
This has all the potential to go dramatically wrong.
Pulling too much, the entire thing will come down.
It's called working blind.
One cable in. Phew.
Yeah.
Now we take it up.
I'll take your side. Yeah.
Let me push this in the harness.
Dick: He needs to attach it to a hole in one
of the wooden beams in the ceiling,
an easy job if he could see what he was doing.
Stephan: Need to turn it.
- Yeah. - No.
Yeah. We're done. Ahh. Hoo.
This is supersafe. You can tell.
[Grunts]
Can't pull it off.
Nicole: I think it's brilliant.
Dick: Well, done, Stephan.
Along with Nicole, they spend the rest of the day
getting the place ready.
Nicole: Let's leave it there for now.
I think it might be all right.
Dick: But with two hours until the guests arrive,
Stephan notices his ancient digger is
spoiling the view.
He wants to move it,
but Nicole is concerned for his safety.
Stephan's been working day and night.
Slightly worried about him actually
because he's been working so hard.
Dick: He's exhausted and injured himself last night.
As you can see, I fell over.
I was getting some stuff out of the stables,
and I just completely fell on the tractor.
Luckily, I still have all my teeth,
but my chin is bruised.
Dick: I wouldn't advise operating heavy machinery
when you're as tired as Stephan, people.
Stephan: Now the resting place for the digger
is, like, between the old stuff.
It's really helped us out actually because
without I don't think we could have managed so far,
so it's very practical.
Dick: Luckily, Stephan parks it without doing himself
or anyone else any injury.
Ahh.
Part of chateau life I think, hmm?
Tweak the curtain a little bit.
Dick: Back in the chateau, the guest bedroom
is ready for business.
Nicole: Ha ha! Considering the constraints
that we've had, I think it looks really nice.
Hopefully everyone else will, too.
It's great to have a room that people can rent at last.
The colors here are kind of subdued and relaxing,
and I didn't want to subtract from the view,
so hopefully, they work with each other.
Dick: Renting out the bedroom will start bringing in
much-needed income.
Feels great. Just-- but we're not ready yet.
Dick: But with 30 guests arriving in less than an hour,
there's no time to hang about.
Nicole: Um, and we need to put this sofa out.
Man: Where does it go? Nicole: If you can upstairs.
Uh, I need to get my bread there.
Hopefully nobody wants anything soft to drink
because there isn't anything.
What should we do with the piano?
Want it just a bit up?
Move it into that room. Ha ha!
People know that it's not about it being finished,
and if there's a bit of tarnish left,
it doesn't matter to me.
That adds character.
Hopefully, the style with the wallpaper chosen,
it doesn't really need to be finished in a way, so...
[Crash]
Obviously, the hole in the floor,
we haven't had time.
So it's just, you know-- it's just there.
Dick: Well, the guests will be here soon, Nicole.
We'll see what they think when they arrive.
It's 11:30 the morning after the Easter party
at Chateau de Lalande,
and owner Stephanie is still asleep.
There is an important job to do.
Luckily, one of her friends Michael is on hand.
Michael: This is the most important part
of the whole weekend.
This is the Easter egg hunt,
so what we've done is we've come down
to the woods before everyone's woken up,
and we're gonna hide eggs throughout the bluebell field.
There we go. He's hiding.
That's always the fun bit when a local drives past
and sees these crazy foreigners running around their fields
dressed as animals. Ha!
They always wonder what the hell we're up to.
These are the last two.
Got to hide them somewhere really good.
I think I've got a spot.
Dick: Stephanie and the rest of the guests
make their way up to the woods
to be given their instructions.
Michael: The boundary is the edge of the bluebell field
to our right, the farmer's fields
to the back, and the river to our left.
Isabelle: The river? Michael: The river.
Isabelle: Ooh. That's a long way.
- Is that a fair old distance? - No.
Michael: OK. 1, 2, 3, go!
[Cheering]
Dick: There's 250 eggs to find,
but it looks like the weekend's festivities
have taken their toll on Stephanie.
I'm feeling quite fragile this morning,
hence the sunglasses
because I went to bed at 5 A.M.
Dick: But not everyone's struggling to get motivated.
I've got 5, including a bunny, a little bunny.
Golden bunnies!
Look how many I've got.
I've got 5. Ooh. That is big.
- Can I have that in mine? - Yes.
- Because I love that one. - OK. Sure.
Dick: After 45 minutes hunting, it's all over.
Stephanie: We found all the eggs.
That's the big end to Easter morning.
We can go and eat now.
Heh. Oh, gosh, it looks really good.
Dick: Fortunately for Stephanie, her friends
Kim, Frank, and Evo have taken charge
of serving up brunch.
Thank you, everybody, for coming for Easter.
It's been amazing seeing you all.
Dick: It's been a great weekend.
Stephanie's decided it's been a good test of her abilities
so is going to attempt it for real
with a singles weekend next month.
I'm really hoping that we can make some money with this
because the chateau's got to find constant new ways
to pay for itself, and hopefully, it'll work.
Dick: But her mum and friends helped out a lot this weekend.
Chances are they won't be around next time.
Stephanie's going to have a job on her hands,
and I'm looking forward to seeing how she does it.
You don't expect bad weather in August
in the South of France,
but that's exactly what Alison is experiencing
in Chateau de Brametourte 30 minutes before the wedding.
That front area of the chateau is really
like a wind tunnel.
Dick: It means the planned reception
on the newly finished wedding terrace
might have to be moved.
Alison: We're gonna check about 15 minutes
before the ceremony how the wind is,
and if it's still bad, we're going to make
changes in the plan.
Dick: But the groom is thinking about other things.
It's been a bit frantic this morning getting
everything set up, so once that's all over
and done with, we can just have a really good night.
Dick: In another room away from prying eyes,
bride Hannah is applying the finishing touches.
Any chance you could just, um--
- What did you want doing? - My necklace, please.
James will probably expect me to be a little bit late,
so that's fine. Ha ha ha!
Dick: It's not raining, so the wedding
can take place in the courtyard.
Gosh. Everyone's sitting down,
not that I'm panicked or anything now.
- Ahh. Oh, my goodness. - Oh, yeah.
Dick: And as Alison sorts the last few details...
[Ding ding]
the big moment arrives.
Woman: Very warm welcome to Chateau de Brametourte
here in Lautrec
this very special day for Hannah and James.
Woman: I give you my heart... James: I give you my heart...
Woman: my promise... Hannah: my promise...
Woman: that I will walk with you...
James: that I'll walk with you...
Woman: wherever our journey leads us...
Hannah: Wherever our journey leads us...
Woman: forever. James: forever.
Woman: I'm now pleased to announce that
you're husband and wife,
and, James, you may kiss Hannah.
James: The wind finally went down really,
and just everything we wanted.
Hannah: The views, the balcony, everything.
It's just been really, really nice.
Dick: The winds have died down...
And the rain stayed off, so thank goodness for that.
- No rain. No rain at all. - No rain. Yay!
Yeah. We can't complain with that.
Dick: which means the reception on the wedding terrace is on.
[Indistinct chatter]
It's been a great day, and it's going to be
a great night.
Alison is overjoyed it's all gone well.
I'm very pleased, and lovely to see the bride,
and I think when I was watching, I had a tear,
she had a tear, and so did he
and the mother of the bride,
so we were all having a tear with that.
It was a very beautiful service.
Dick: So the terrace around the pool is a hit
and a real bonus for future weddings.
Hopefully, Alison and Paul can soon realize
their dream of giving up their day jobs
and living and working here permanently.
Alison: Financially, it is difficult,
but to see where we've come from
to where we are today is very, very fulfilling.
We're 95% there, so I hope we can relax
and actually be based here to enjoy the environment
and making this a special holiday place
and a special wedding destination.
Dick: Good luck with it, Alison.
[Cheering]
Nearly 600 miles north to celebrate
their transformation of the grand main hall,
Nicole and Stephan have invited 30
of their closest friends to enjoy its unique charms,
including this wallpaper.
13 weeks ago, Nicole discovered some old wallpaper...
Nicole: What amazing colors.
Dick: that my wife Angel helped her date
to the latter half of the 18th century.
Angel: Looks like an extremely high-quality printing
and well worth conserving.
Dick: Nicole has got some tailor-made
to match the original,
and it now decorates the room adjoining the main hall.
Nicole: That wallpaper we found in a room upstairs.
- Oh! - It's not what you'd expect.
No, it's not. I think it's beautiful.
I actually think it looks like a tapestry actually.
I love the way that Stephan and you have been doing it
because it's kind of traditional,
but it's really kind of a modern twist
that makes it beautiful.
- This is the entrance hall. - OK.
Because this is actually the center of the chateau.
This is gonna be the events area.
Woman: You've got to make money.
Nicole: So your wedding. Um...
Yes. Like weddings. Yes. My wedding.
- Your wedding. - My wedding. That's right.
I might have to talk to Martin about that.
- OK. - Ha ha ha!
Martin, I need a word later, all right?
Dick: With Nicole already lining up their next booking,
there's a surprise treat for the guests.
Man: * È sempre misero chi a lei s'affida *
* Chi le confida mal cauto... *
Dick: For Nicole and Stephan, the evening's been a triumph.
Stephan: I think it was a great idea to change it
to an event space.
People love it, and that was the aim of it,
like, people would be able to enjoy the place.
* È mobil' *
Stephan: It's so romantic.
It's such a beautiful setting.
Charming. Well done.
Ha ha ha! Thanks so much.
* E di *
* Pensier' *
[Applause]
Dick: It's a vital first step in their bid
to make the chateau self-sufficient.
Stephan: We're really happy with it.
Nicole: It is as I imagined.
It's quite nice. I quite like it. Ha ha!
Stephan: Could have given up somewhere along the road,
but it brought life back to a bare shell.
Nicole: And there's a lot that we still need to do.
There's a light bulb missing there.
- Shh. - Ha ha ha!
Dick: These two have worked incredibly hard.
I can't think of anyone better to take
this magnificent old chateau on to the next stage
of its life.
All the best, guys.
Next time...
when I attempt to salvage the children's
trampoline from our moat...
Oh, dear.
Dick, voice-over: It's anyone's guess if I actually
know what I'm doing.
At this stage, I'm not 100% sure what's going to happen,
but with a bit of a luck, it'll be in the dark,
so nobody will know.
With one couple's roof in desperate need of repair...
It's pretty grim. Every time it rains,
I have to come out with the buckets.
Dick: they hold an event to bring in
some much-needed cash.
- 55 plus 30. - 75.
What did you say, 75?
Let's write this down.
Dick: Easier said than done.
[Clatter]
Oops!
Just trying not to panic now.
Dick: Stephanie struggles to face a big day of work...
Stephanie, oh, come on, darling.
You must get up.
Dick: but soon gets into the swing of it.
Stephanie: It's not every day we have a digger
to play with.
Right. Ready.
It's hard to be gentle with a digger.
Dick: And after Tim and Margreeth come to ours
to talk about their struggling business...
Dick: Come on in, come on in. Tim: Wow! I can't get
over this place. Amazing, man.
Dick: they leave with their heads full of ideas.
Tim: I can really see this being a sort of
turning point, you know?
So inspiring.
Tim: We've got so many things we can do.
my darling wife Angel,
and our two beautiful children.
Nearly 3 years ago, we upped sticks
for a whole new life in France
and bought this magnificent chateau.
Angel: Ohh! Aah!
Dick, voice-over: We've been doing it up ever since.
Angel: Baby, ah, you're so strong.
Dick, voice-over: Turns out we're not the only ones.
Angelina: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[Clatter]
Oops!
Dick: Dozens of Brits are taking the plunge
to rescue these stunning buildings.
Karen: Ohh!
What amazing colors.
Jonathan: We need to get on top of it,
get on top of the goats.
Dick, voice-over: In this series, we'll reveal more
on how we're running our chateau as a business...
Oop! Ahh! Back on dry land!
Angel: I'm still finding things that I haven't seen.
Dick: and we'll help these daring families run theirs...
Angel: Here's to the meeting of two like-minded couples.
- Yes. Cheers. - Cheers.
Dick: as they face the highs...
I'm absolutely terrified.
Dick: and lows...
[Engine sputters]
Woman: It's extremely expensive. It's financial suicide.
Dick: of running these gorgeous buildings
as everything from B&Bs to beautiful wedding venues.
Tanya: Owning a chateau isn't glamorous.
Ahh!
Tanya: Anyone who thinks it is is delusional.
Dick: Today, the stress of prepping a chateau
for an opening party takes its toll...
He lost 4 kilos in the last 2 weeks.
4 kilos. It's quite a lot.
Dick: but come the big night, it looks like
it might bring in some business.
- Your wedding, um... - My wedding. That's right.
I might have to talk to Martin about that.
- OK. - Ha ha!
Dick: At one chateau, a mother disagrees
with her daughter's plan to bring in
some much-needed cash.
I would never have done a party like this personally,
absolutely not.
It's great having my mother here,
but stress levels have risen because she's
never happy with what I'm doing.
Dick: One man's caravan renovation plans
take a backwards step...
Little bit of wood to be cut out
and sort of put in again, but--
Oops! And the floor. Ha ha!
Floor needs replacing, as well. Ha ha ha!
Dick: and a bride suffers prenuptial jitters
before her chateau wedding.
Gosh. Everyone's sitting down, not that I'm
panicked or anything now.
- Ahh. Oh, my goodness. - Oh, yeah.
Dick: This is the 18th century Chateau d'Humières,
and it's being renovated by British designer Nicole
and her Belgian boyfriend Stephan.
- How many rooms do we have? - No idea.
I don't think I've ever counted.
No. We were always focused on renovating them, huh?
Plus you have a short-term memory problem.
Because I never sleep, huh? Heh heh.
Dick: Located in the Picardy region
of Northern France, they've been working on it
for 3 years
after a chance encounter in a hotel.
Stephan, voice-over: I was sitting in the lobby,
reading a magazine.
I was like, "Ooh! There's a picture of my house."
All of a sudden, I got tapped on the shoulder
and looked up, and Nicole was standing there.
I said, "Do I know you?"
She answered, "You should because you're looking
at my house."
Nicole: I'd spent several years restoring a property
in the South of France.
It was photographed in this magazine,
so I just thought, "I'll give him a tap on the shoulder."
And then we ended up as a couple over here,
renovating a castle.
Dick: They're now converting it to an upmarket B&B.
Stephan: Needs to be generating money,
needs to be self-financing.
Dick: They were also planning to open a tea room
to start earning some money,
but after Nicole went to see my wife Angel for some advice...
Angel: You want to be a destination place
and bring 20 grand in a month.
Dick: she returned with some news for Stephan.
Nicole: The main things that I learned
was basically the bottom line is if we just
do a tea room, it's not a good idea.
Dick: So Nicole came up with a plan.
Now we're going to be concentrating on getting
the rental spaces decorated and ready.
Dick: She wants to focus on getting a B&B guest room
within the chateau finished, and as for the hall...
- Maybe as a breakfast room? - Exactly.
It could be perfect as a breakfast space, and then--
Stephan: Also for other types of events...
- Exactly. - or how do you see it here?
Use the room for other events.
It could be courses, it could be conferences.
Every other week, we'd plan a course.
Who knows? We'd have to think about that.
People can book it. People can then use the space.
Dick: So now they're rushing to get the hall...
There's been some plumbing issues.
There are holes in the floor.
Dick: and guest room...
Nicole: Putting up wallpaper.
It's taking ages.
Dick: ready for the summer.
Getting the electric cables into the walls
to put the lighting, connecting the electricity.
We're clearly not ready.
You know, we're just not.
Dick: But with their target deadline fast approaching,
their new plans have been thrown into chaos
with their application for a vital loan
from the bank rejected.
Nicole, voice-over: It was a complete blow,
which has affected how the work has been able to progress.
Had the mortgage come through, we'd have been able
to have some more people on board working faster,
getting things done.
You can imagine what a hole such a place creates
in your pocket, so it's really put
a lot of pressure on.
Dick: With no money to pay for extra workers,
Nicole and Stephan have had to work even harder
to try and get the hall and guest room finished.
This is the room we're gonna be renting out
so that we can have a little bit of extra income coming in.
OK. It's not ready now.
We've got some painting to do,
we've got curtains to put up.
Ha ha! There's a load to do, but we'll have it done.
We have to.
Dick: And they're making life even more difficult
by throwing a party tomorrow for friends and family
to kick off their new plans for the hall.
Nicole: This a bit of a practice run really,
see what kind of atmosphere we can create,
see how many people we can get to fill the space.
Dick: It all looks rather stressful.
4 kilos I lost already so far.
Yeah. He lost 4 kilos in the last 2 weeks.
4 kilos is quite a lot.
I mean, it's adding a bit of stress
because we've had to organize things in time,
but it's worth it, I hope.
Dick: With cash short, quick fixes and easy patches
are the order of the day.
We have this blank spot in between.
It's a big difference of height,
so we're just filling this up with concrete.
We're leveling it out,
and that we have a temporary floor
for when people come.
Otherwise, they might fall down.
Dick: Job done, but Stephan's looking exhausted.
Stephan: Last night, we get the 3 hours of sleep,
and now it's just getting through the day.
Each one you see, you just have to sort it out,
get it done, trying to survive until tomorrow evening actually.
Dick: But with just a day to go before the party,
there's still a mountain of work to do.
This is the 16th century Chateau de Lalande,
home to Stephanie Jarvis.
Stephanie, voice-over: I always knew that I wanted
to buy a chateau.
I think probably from the moment
I was reading fairytales as a child
it was really clear that's what I wanted to do.
Dick: Located in central rural France,
she and her friend Nick bought this place together
after pooling all their resources.
Stephanie: I had a two-bedroom flat in London.
He also had a two-bedroom flat in London.
He said it would be way more fun
if we sold both our flats and got maybe
a 4-bed terrace house in Arsenal with a garden,
and I was saying to him one night
"It's so depressing the things I'm seeing
"that we can afford with everything
"we've got pooled together, and I know
that for the same price we could buy a chateau in France,"
so I started looking.
We sold our flats and bought here.
Dick: The chateau cost her about £600,000,
not a bad price for a 500-year-old,
17-bedroom palace
with 60 acres of land,
a lake, and a private chapel,
but it needed a lot of work.
Stephanie: We redid all of the electrics,
all of the plumbing.
Had to put in septic tanks.
Obviously, all of the asbestos had to go.
We insulated every outside wall downstairs,
so big works.
The renovations were very expensive,
but then the maintenance costs start to hit,
and that I hadn't really thought about that much.
Dick: With bills to pay, Stephanie's come up
with two ways the chateau could generate some cash.
Stephanie: The chateau generates money mainly
through chambre d'hotes, B&Bs.
The chambre d'hotes is working more and more every year,
but by far, most of the business comes
through workshops.
We have maybe 6 a year.
Dick: The workshops are for groups of musicians,
who stay for a whole week.
She also has a long-term plan.
Stephanie: I want to make two new apartments
over the garages, and I'd like to rent
them as gites.
Dick: And to pay for this, she's launching a new event.
Stephanie: We want to try and start sort of
singles weekends, so that's the next big project
for this year.
Dick: She plans on hosting singles parties,
where 20 to 30 single people come to the chateau
for a weekend to meet, dine, and play games.
Stephanie: It's quite nice to just go away
somewhere in the middle of nowhere
and meet lots of other people around the same age group,
who are single and so wanting to meet lots of people, as well.
Dick: As a trial run, she's invited
30 close friends and family for an Easter weekend dinner party.
It's even got a theme.
Stephanie: Tonight is the under the sea
themed dinner, so I'm mainly doing fish
and lots of salads.
Dick: But the person she thought was helping
with the cooking can't make it.
And I can't cook.
My mother collects cookery books,
so I got every cookery book I could find.
I spent the whole night just going through cookery books,
looking for recipes.
It's not so much could things go wrong
as what will go wrong.
Dick: First job Stephanie takes on is
a simple garlic mayonnaise.
I may have broken the whisk.
Yes.
This is much better.
- Oh, maman. - Belle.
Dick: Stephanie's mum Isabelle, who's French,
has joined her daughter for the weekend.
Mayonnaise?
It's been a bit of a struggle.
The first machine was broken.
Second machine is working, but we're getting there.
That's the story of our lives.
You get here, something is broken.
Stephanie: Always.
She's much more organized than I am.
I think she finds the party quite stressful
because she just sees the work that needs doing.
I would never have done a party like this personally,
absolutely not.
Stephanie: Mummy doesn't understand how she had
a daughter like this.
No. I think there has been a big mistake at birth.
- A switch. - A switch.
I don't really understand why I am attempting
to make mayonnaise when there's so much to do.
Dick: Luckily, some of Steph's friends have arrived early
and help make a start on the decoration
for the undersea theme.
Man: So we've got our fabric,
but I'm not to sure how we're going to turn
this into waves.
Stephanie: Just tent it. Tent it so that it's,
like, hanging in waves like this.
Man: OK.
Dick: Her friend Michael doesn't seem convinced
by the underwater theme.
Michael: So I think this is gonna be a lot bigger
than I thought it would, and I'm not sure
it's gonna feel like we're under the sea.
Dick: O ye of little faith.
Back in the kitchen, Stephanie has
more pressing concerns.
Stephanie: Mummy has arrived not to save the day
with the mayonnaise as to criticize
the mayonnaise and tell me what the--
- Constructive. - Oh. Constructive criticism?
Yes, so that you can make it perfect.
I think it just needs salt.
I'm stepping away from the mayonnaise now.
I've just got to let it go.
Dick: That small bowl of mayo took over an hour to make.
Stephanie: I'm a big concerned that my timing's
been a little off.
This is the sort of thing my mother talks about
with, like, me not being very organized
but quite enthusiastic,
but the mayonnaise is done!
That's what matters.
Dick: Good for you, Stephanie,
but there's still tons to do to be ready
for tonight's party, which is scheduled
to start in two hours, by the way.
Stephanie: I still have to make my costume
and do my hair and make the pasta
and the canapes and the salads.
There's still a lot to do.
Dick: Chateau des Lys.
This mid-19th century austere yet beautiful building
was once a boys' school.
It's now run as a B&B by Brit Tim
and his wife Margreeth,
but they're not bringing in enough income.
Our biggest problem is that we have under capacity
during the summer, so we have to sort that out
because if we can get that together,
then life becomes a lot easier.
Dick: So they've got big plans.
Located just an hour's drive from Calais
in the picturesque Picardy region,
they think they're perfectly positioned to develop
a luxury caravan park and lease their gites
in a co-ownership scheme.
Tim: So we turned it really from a sort of
big, empty barn, which was lovely,
into something which you can live in.
I love it.
Dick: But all sales on the gites
have been on hold for the last 6 months
while Tim's battled a colony of bees
in one of their chimneys.
After multiple attempts to get rid of them,
today he's hoping they're gone for good.
Tim: Let's go and check.
Ah. Here. Ooh! Ahh! No. Seriously. Ha ha ha!
Well, I think the bees are gone.
Brilliant. Gite's safe,
and, uh, people won't get stung on their bum.
We have won the battle of the bees,
and they've all gone, so we can get on,
and we can sell the gite.
Dick: Their other project, the caravan park,
is still in its early stages.
They've got the first caravan in position,
but it's a sad, old thing in need of TLC.
Tim's replacing the outer wood and paneling
to make it weatherproof.
It's all secondhand wood from Holland,
and it's interesting.
In Holland, this stuff, they just recycle it.
You go to a breakage yard, pick some up,
and it's normally cheaper than buying new wood.
I can't find anything like this in France
that I can use, so all the wood,
which is quite a lot-- I've got enough here
to do the whole of this side--
has cost me about-- I think about 200 Euros.
We just sort of, you know, buy it, bring it down, paint it.
It's just got a nice weatherproof outside coat,
and I quite like it.
I mean, I quite like the fact that it's all
different, you know-- it's all old.
It also means it's seasoned, so that means it won't warp.
Dick: Yep. New or untreated wood will contain moisture.
Then when it dries out, it can twist, bow, or curl.
Tim just needs to make sure he regularly waterproofs his wood.
Tim: Some bits are easier than others.
This one bows in the middle, which is a shame.
Dick: Tim and Margreeth have got
their first guests arriving to stay in a month's time.
Tim: This is looking good. I'm quite happy with this,
but I'm almost to the stage where I can go inside this
and we can sleep in it.
Dick: Uh...almost.
Tim: the fire is in position, looking good.
We'll be able to light that soon.
It's just mainly cleaning.
It's been idling in the field now for quite a long time,
but it's watertight, so there's no
real damage anywhere.
The electricity's become a bit dated.
Halogens are out, LEDs are in,
so probably have to change a few bulbs,
and now we can get some beds in,
maybe get a little cooker, have a little kitchen.
Dick: Sounds like a fair bit of work to me.
Tim: There's a couple of rotten bits there,
but that's not disastrous.
Little bit of wood to be cut out
and sort of put in again, but--
[Crash]
Oops! And the floor. Ha ha!
Floor needs replacing, as well. Ha ha ha!
Dick: Better add that to the to-do list.
A 9-hour drive south of Tim's is another chateau,
Chateau de Brametourte.
This 1,000-year-old fort is home to Alison Ward and Paul Hunter.
Alison: When you buy a chateau, you think most
of your cost is done when you buy it,
but in reality, the costs are what happens
year after year after year as you start renovating
and trying to convert it into a business.
Based in the Languedoc region of France,
they want to make a living running it as wedding venue
so they can give up their jobs as HR and IT consultants.
Alison: It's been 10 years of graft,
10 years of having to travel and work
in different parts of the world and come back here
and do the renovations,
turning it into a an incredible environment for people
to have their weddings.
Dick: They've now finished the wedding terrace,
and tomorrow, it'll be used for its very first wedding.
Alison: Paul and I love turning the place
into something beautiful with wow factor
that our clients can really enjoy.
Dick: Today, the bride and groom have arrived.
- Wow! - Can't believe we're here.
Dick: James and Hannah have invited
over 30 family and friends to their wedding.
[Ding ding]
[Dog barks]
James: Ha ha ha!
Dick: With Paul away working, Alison is holding the fort.
Alison: Hello. James: Hiya. Hi.
This is Champus, isn't it? Hi, Champus. Hello.
Dick: Before they're shown up to their suite,
Alison wants the soon-to-be married couple
to take part in an ancient custom.
Alison: If I can just explain to you a tradition,
which is to say the Lord's Prayer.
- OK. - Got this sign
of the Knights of the Templar in front of the front door,
and that actually makes sure that you have
a future happy marriage, and it also blesses the house
at the same time.
- Is that all right? - Yeah. Sounds good.
Yeah. Lovely.
Alison: Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
on Earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
Hannah: Ha. James: I'll follow your lead.
- Our father... - who art in heaven...
- hallowed be Thy name. - Thy kingdom come.
- Thou will be done... - on Earth as it is in heaven.
Hannah: Amen.
Alison: And enter the house.
Dick: James and Hannah last visited Chateau de Brametourte
18 months ago when the bridal suite
was still being renovated.
Alison: Here we are through the old courtyard door
into the new suite of angels.
Hannah: Can't believe how different it is.
James: Wow. That's amazing.
Hannah: I love all the furnishings, as well. Lovely.
James: Wow. Alison: You've got
the balcony out there.
James: Of course, yeah.
Hannah: Oh, fabulous. James: Spectacular. Wow.
Hannah: The views are absolutely stunning.
- That is lovely. - When we came here before,
this balcony wasn't here at all.
It was literally just a hole here.
I'm really, really pleased.
So excited to stay here now. Ha ha!
Woman: Ha ha!
Dick: Over the next few hours, the rest of the guests arrive...
- Have you got both bags? - Yeah.
Dick: but unfortunately, it seems some of them
have some brought some typical British weather
along with them.
[Thunder]
Hannah: Part of the reason why we chose the South of France
was because of the weather.
You can never really go into the weather in the UK.
Just hoping that the sun comes out for us tomorrow. Ha ha!
Dick: With the storm forecast to last through tomorrow,
the big day, it looks like all Paul and Alison's
hard work developing the wedding terrace
may have been wasted for this particular wedding.
Just under 500 miles north at Chateau d'Humières,
it's all hands on deck.
It's really fun actually when everyone's
just mucking in and we're all working together
to get it done.
Dick: Nicole, Stephan, and their small team
of volunteers are racing to get the chateau's
main hall ready for the upcoming party tomorrow
and its new guest room open for business.
Nicole: It doesn't feel like the end is almost in sight.
There's still loads to do,
and I think as people get kind of more knackered
then a sort of hysteria sets in,
and then you start to get the giggles, I think,
which is great.
This looks much better or moved on.
Much closer to finishing touches,
which is the bit that I really enjoy.
Dick: Ever resourceful Stephan has a plan
to add a striking new feature to the hall.
He's acquired a beautiful ceiling rose.
This is a bit that came from another chateau,
a chateau not far away from here,
which regretfully was torn down for some reason,
and I think it will go very nicely in the entrance hall.
This is the fun part.
This is the preparation of the glue
to put the molding on the ceiling,
and it's actually a cement.
Sets in about 5 minutes.
Dick: You can't hang around with this stuff.
Stephan will need to get it up and in position
on the ceiling quickly.
Stephan: And it's like concrete when it sets.
Sort of making like a dough.
Sort of cooking.
Putting some on the sides so that it will hook
to the ceiling without falling down on us.
If you hold this, I will screw it.
Here. You like it?
I think it's brilliant.
- Know to fix? - I know how to fix it.
OK. Let me think.
Add a piece of wood.
[Screwdriver running]
Hoo. Make sure it has the time to settle.
My only concern actually the cement is actually
already hard.
Dick: Stephan leaves it in position for 5 minutes...
It seems to stay up.
Dick: and then starts to undo the plank
holding it up against the ceiling.
Nicole: Well, what if it doesn't stick?
Stephan: Never lucky.
Dick: At Chateau de Lalande, preparations are underway
for tonight's Easter party.
Owner Stephanie has plans to hold singles parties
to bring in more money, so tonight is a test run
with 30 close friends and family.
Half the guests are here.
The other half are about to arrive.
The rooms are readyish.
Dick: While she struggles with dinner,
her friends help decorate for the party's underwater theme.
Man: I'm hammering the nails into the beam
so we can put strings back and forth from it.
We're going to drape these pieces of material.
Those are hand-carved beams from about 1490.
So let's not destroy them in one go then?
- Yeah. - One nail per beam.
One nail per beam will be good.
Dick: In the kitchen, Stephanie not only has
lots more food to prepare...
I have to make another mousse,
and I have to make a pasta bake.
Yeah. There's a lot to do still.
Dick: she needs to get ready for the party herself.
Stephanie: I'm still a little bit concerned
about the fact that I still don't have a costume.
Dick: And with less than an hour until the party's
due to start,
with her decorations and cocktails nearly ready...
Woman: I need another bottle of blue curacao, I believe.
Dick: in the kitchen, tensions are rising.
Stephanie, I think you complicate your life.
A radish is a radish. Just serve the blooming radish.
Stephanie: Sorry.
Cucumber is cucumber. Serve the cucumber.
Stephanie: This is why my mother doesn't do the cooking.
You would get a radish, a cucumber.
Anything else on someone's plate?
Isabelle: A potato. Stephanie: A potato.
A radish, a cucumber, a potato.
I believe in healthy cooking. Ha ha!
It's great having my mother here,
but stress levels have risen
because she's never happy with what I'm doing
until it's done.
Afterwards, she'll be like, "Oh, you did so well.
That was really great,"
but every step of the way up until it's done,
there's a bit of micromanagement going on.
Let's face it. Without my presence,
there would be chaos.
There would be 20 of them in here.
Dick: It's 9 P.M., and the chateau is full
of hungry guests,
but at last, the food's ready if an hour late.
Stephanie: OK, everyone.
[Cheering]
It's time to come and eat. Bring your plates.
Dick: And it looks great.
Stephanie: It's been a hell of a lot of work,
and I didn't know that we'd get it all done,
especially when we spent an hour on the mayonnaise this morning.
Dick: Finally, Stephanie can enjoy herself for a bit.
Stephanie: Now I get to relax because I finished cooking
and Kim's cooking tomorrow.
Dick: The good news is one of Stephanie's friends
has volunteered to cook breakfast tomorrow.
The bad news--she's still got lots of other things to arrange.
Stephanie: I'm going to sleep when I finally get to bed.
I'm not sure when that's going to be.
Tomorrow morning, we have to be up.
Dick: Let's hope she's ready for action then.
But 320 miles north back in Picardy,
Tim and Margreeth's first caravan guests
arrive in 4 weeks' time.
The interior still needs renovating
plus the new hole in the floor.
Ahem!
But Tim's turned his attention to the fire pit outside.
I'm sort of envisioning it going around like this,
making a circle.
These are good, old rocks, aren't they?
Dick: The great thing about old chateaus
is there's usually a plethora of handy materials
just hanging about.
So I got a whole pile of stones.
I reckon it's probably part of the original paving
for the chateau, which is long gone.
My wheelbarrow will take 6 of those
before it starts breaking,
so we're gonna go backwards and forwards
with 6 at a time.
So the only problem with this system is
that there is a considerable distance
between the stones and the fire pit.
Hey. We need a lot more stones, I think.
Tim: We need a lot more stones, don't we?
Margreeth: So good luck Tim: Thank you.
I think two more after this, don't we think?
Margreeth: 3.
Perfect.
Dick: As Margreeth lays them into the circle,
Tim carries on with the donkey work.
[Tim wheezing]
Pchew!
Margreeth: It's really coming together.
Tim: Oh, oh, ho! It's great.
We need a full circle.
We are nearly there, aren't we?
Margreeth: Yeah. It looks so good.
Tim: Yeah. It does look good, doesn't it?
Looks much better than I thought it was gonna look.
Margreeth: Me, too.
Tim: Well done. Looks great.
That's it.
Dick: Margreeth's off to make a well-deserved cuppa
as Tim tests out his handiwork with the help of son Joe.
Tim: What do you reckon?
Ah. We got chocolate. Hey!
Joe: Can I have chocolate?
- Have you helped? - Have you helped?
Joe: Yes!
Margreeth: So this is working really well.
- It's lovely, isn't it? - It's really nice.
- Cheers. - Cheers. To the fire pit.
- Fire pit. - Well done.
Ha ha ha!
Margreeth: How far do you think before the caravan's finished?
Tim: What year is it? 2017, isn't it?
No, no. I think if I get a run of it,
um, I think I can do it in 2 or 3 days.
Dick: Tim's confident he'll be ready
for the first guests in 4 weeks.
Before then, I want to help them out,
so I've invited them to our place for a business chat.
- This'll be fun. - Yeah.
- Looking forward to this. - Me, too. Yeah.
Dick: Who knows? Maybe Angel and I can offer
them some helpful advice?
Tim: He seems to know what he's doing.
Margreeth: I'm obviously excited about meeting Angel.
Dick: Over 550 miles south at the opposite end
of the country, it's the day
before the first wedding of the season
at Chateau de Brametourte.
It's August, but you wouldn't think so.
We should get the fire going, shouldn't we?
Dick: All the hard work carried out developing
the new terrace by the pool for wedding receptions
could have been to no avail.
Alison: On the day, you can't plan for everything.
We've just got to find the best solution
and use the chateau and its grounds
to its best ability.
Dick: It's the morning of the wedding,
and the storm appears to have passed.
Bride Hannah is relieved.
Hannah: There was a bit of thunder and lightning
last night, torrential rains,
and the panic was really starting to set in.
Obviously, last-minute nerves and things,
but hopefully won't see any more of it today.
Dick: The storm has delayed the preparations.
A bit further back.
Dick: With the wedding just 5 hours away,
everyone's got a job.
Hannah: We've got 100 flags?
- Yeah. We can cut it. - We can always cut it.
Hannah: Yeah. OK.
I put all the beers in there now.
Hannah: OK.
James: We've got all the sparkling--
well, not all the sparkling, majority of sparkling in there.
Hannah: OK. James: That's the milk and teas.
Hannah: OK. Yes. Getting there.
James: One step forward. Hannah: Yes.
Dick: But an hour before Hannah walks
down the aisle, the weather worsens.
Alison: We've had such unusual weather conditions.
Last night, there was a tempest,
and now the wind seems to be getting up,
so we're just trying to work out what's
the best place to be serving the drinks and the canapes
to make sure they're not going to be blowing away.
Dick: Poor Hannah. Is her dream wedding
going to be a washout?
At Chateau d'Humières, Stephan's about to find out
if he successfully stuck a rose to his ceiling
or if he's about to be hit in the face
with 10 pounds of falling plaster.
Phew!
That's really nice.
Dick: The next day, the day of the party
after just a few hours' sleep,
Stephan's now got to find out if the ceiling
can withstand the weight of a heavy chandelier.
Stephan: So bring it up, you go on the scaffold boarding,
I'll give it to you, then we put it on the ceiling,
and then the ceiling falls down, OK?
Man: Ha ha! OK.
Stephan: OK.
OK.
We have to somehow attach these things.
Then we can pull this up.
Dick: The chandelier means a lot to Stephan.
Stephan: It's a pretty old chandelier.
This came out of the house of my grandfather's.
This has all the potential to go dramatically wrong.
Pulling too much, the entire thing will come down.
It's called working blind.
One cable in. Phew.
Yeah.
Now we take it up.
I'll take your side. Yeah.
Let me push this in the harness.
Dick: He needs to attach it to a hole in one
of the wooden beams in the ceiling,
an easy job if he could see what he was doing.
Stephan: Need to turn it.
- Yeah. - No.
Yeah. We're done. Ahh. Hoo.
This is supersafe. You can tell.
[Grunts]
Can't pull it off.
Nicole: I think it's brilliant.
Dick: Well, done, Stephan.
Along with Nicole, they spend the rest of the day
getting the place ready.
Nicole: Let's leave it there for now.
I think it might be all right.
Dick: But with two hours until the guests arrive,
Stephan notices his ancient digger is
spoiling the view.
He wants to move it,
but Nicole is concerned for his safety.
Stephan's been working day and night.
Slightly worried about him actually
because he's been working so hard.
Dick: He's exhausted and injured himself last night.
As you can see, I fell over.
I was getting some stuff out of the stables,
and I just completely fell on the tractor.
Luckily, I still have all my teeth,
but my chin is bruised.
Dick: I wouldn't advise operating heavy machinery
when you're as tired as Stephan, people.
Stephan: Now the resting place for the digger
is, like, between the old stuff.
It's really helped us out actually because
without I don't think we could have managed so far,
so it's very practical.
Dick: Luckily, Stephan parks it without doing himself
or anyone else any injury.
Ahh.
Part of chateau life I think, hmm?
Tweak the curtain a little bit.
Dick: Back in the chateau, the guest bedroom
is ready for business.
Nicole: Ha ha! Considering the constraints
that we've had, I think it looks really nice.
Hopefully everyone else will, too.
It's great to have a room that people can rent at last.
The colors here are kind of subdued and relaxing,
and I didn't want to subtract from the view,
so hopefully, they work with each other.
Dick: Renting out the bedroom will start bringing in
much-needed income.
Feels great. Just-- but we're not ready yet.
Dick: But with 30 guests arriving in less than an hour,
there's no time to hang about.
Nicole: Um, and we need to put this sofa out.
Man: Where does it go? Nicole: If you can upstairs.
Uh, I need to get my bread there.
Hopefully nobody wants anything soft to drink
because there isn't anything.
What should we do with the piano?
Want it just a bit up?
Move it into that room. Ha ha!
People know that it's not about it being finished,
and if there's a bit of tarnish left,
it doesn't matter to me.
That adds character.
Hopefully, the style with the wallpaper chosen,
it doesn't really need to be finished in a way, so...
[Crash]
Obviously, the hole in the floor,
we haven't had time.
So it's just, you know-- it's just there.
Dick: Well, the guests will be here soon, Nicole.
We'll see what they think when they arrive.
It's 11:30 the morning after the Easter party
at Chateau de Lalande,
and owner Stephanie is still asleep.
There is an important job to do.
Luckily, one of her friends Michael is on hand.
Michael: This is the most important part
of the whole weekend.
This is the Easter egg hunt,
so what we've done is we've come down
to the woods before everyone's woken up,
and we're gonna hide eggs throughout the bluebell field.
There we go. He's hiding.
That's always the fun bit when a local drives past
and sees these crazy foreigners running around their fields
dressed as animals. Ha!
They always wonder what the hell we're up to.
These are the last two.
Got to hide them somewhere really good.
I think I've got a spot.
Dick: Stephanie and the rest of the guests
make their way up to the woods
to be given their instructions.
Michael: The boundary is the edge of the bluebell field
to our right, the farmer's fields
to the back, and the river to our left.
Isabelle: The river? Michael: The river.
Isabelle: Ooh. That's a long way.
- Is that a fair old distance? - No.
Michael: OK. 1, 2, 3, go!
[Cheering]
Dick: There's 250 eggs to find,
but it looks like the weekend's festivities
have taken their toll on Stephanie.
I'm feeling quite fragile this morning,
hence the sunglasses
because I went to bed at 5 A.M.
Dick: But not everyone's struggling to get motivated.
I've got 5, including a bunny, a little bunny.
Golden bunnies!
Look how many I've got.
I've got 5. Ooh. That is big.
- Can I have that in mine? - Yes.
- Because I love that one. - OK. Sure.
Dick: After 45 minutes hunting, it's all over.
Stephanie: We found all the eggs.
That's the big end to Easter morning.
We can go and eat now.
Heh. Oh, gosh, it looks really good.
Dick: Fortunately for Stephanie, her friends
Kim, Frank, and Evo have taken charge
of serving up brunch.
Thank you, everybody, for coming for Easter.
It's been amazing seeing you all.
Dick: It's been a great weekend.
Stephanie's decided it's been a good test of her abilities
so is going to attempt it for real
with a singles weekend next month.
I'm really hoping that we can make some money with this
because the chateau's got to find constant new ways
to pay for itself, and hopefully, it'll work.
Dick: But her mum and friends helped out a lot this weekend.
Chances are they won't be around next time.
Stephanie's going to have a job on her hands,
and I'm looking forward to seeing how she does it.
You don't expect bad weather in August
in the South of France,
but that's exactly what Alison is experiencing
in Chateau de Brametourte 30 minutes before the wedding.
That front area of the chateau is really
like a wind tunnel.
Dick: It means the planned reception
on the newly finished wedding terrace
might have to be moved.
Alison: We're gonna check about 15 minutes
before the ceremony how the wind is,
and if it's still bad, we're going to make
changes in the plan.
Dick: But the groom is thinking about other things.
It's been a bit frantic this morning getting
everything set up, so once that's all over
and done with, we can just have a really good night.
Dick: In another room away from prying eyes,
bride Hannah is applying the finishing touches.
Any chance you could just, um--
- What did you want doing? - My necklace, please.
James will probably expect me to be a little bit late,
so that's fine. Ha ha ha!
Dick: It's not raining, so the wedding
can take place in the courtyard.
Gosh. Everyone's sitting down,
not that I'm panicked or anything now.
- Ahh. Oh, my goodness. - Oh, yeah.
Dick: And as Alison sorts the last few details...
[Ding ding]
the big moment arrives.
Woman: Very warm welcome to Chateau de Brametourte
here in Lautrec
this very special day for Hannah and James.
Woman: I give you my heart... James: I give you my heart...
Woman: my promise... Hannah: my promise...
Woman: that I will walk with you...
James: that I'll walk with you...
Woman: wherever our journey leads us...
Hannah: Wherever our journey leads us...
Woman: forever. James: forever.
Woman: I'm now pleased to announce that
you're husband and wife,
and, James, you may kiss Hannah.
James: The wind finally went down really,
and just everything we wanted.
Hannah: The views, the balcony, everything.
It's just been really, really nice.
Dick: The winds have died down...
And the rain stayed off, so thank goodness for that.
- No rain. No rain at all. - No rain. Yay!
Yeah. We can't complain with that.
Dick: which means the reception on the wedding terrace is on.
[Indistinct chatter]
It's been a great day, and it's going to be
a great night.
Alison is overjoyed it's all gone well.
I'm very pleased, and lovely to see the bride,
and I think when I was watching, I had a tear,
she had a tear, and so did he
and the mother of the bride,
so we were all having a tear with that.
It was a very beautiful service.
Dick: So the terrace around the pool is a hit
and a real bonus for future weddings.
Hopefully, Alison and Paul can soon realize
their dream of giving up their day jobs
and living and working here permanently.
Alison: Financially, it is difficult,
but to see where we've come from
to where we are today is very, very fulfilling.
We're 95% there, so I hope we can relax
and actually be based here to enjoy the environment
and making this a special holiday place
and a special wedding destination.
Dick: Good luck with it, Alison.
[Cheering]
Nearly 600 miles north to celebrate
their transformation of the grand main hall,
Nicole and Stephan have invited 30
of their closest friends to enjoy its unique charms,
including this wallpaper.
13 weeks ago, Nicole discovered some old wallpaper...
Nicole: What amazing colors.
Dick: that my wife Angel helped her date
to the latter half of the 18th century.
Angel: Looks like an extremely high-quality printing
and well worth conserving.
Dick: Nicole has got some tailor-made
to match the original,
and it now decorates the room adjoining the main hall.
Nicole: That wallpaper we found in a room upstairs.
- Oh! - It's not what you'd expect.
No, it's not. I think it's beautiful.
I actually think it looks like a tapestry actually.
I love the way that Stephan and you have been doing it
because it's kind of traditional,
but it's really kind of a modern twist
that makes it beautiful.
- This is the entrance hall. - OK.
Because this is actually the center of the chateau.
This is gonna be the events area.
Woman: You've got to make money.
Nicole: So your wedding. Um...
Yes. Like weddings. Yes. My wedding.
- Your wedding. - My wedding. That's right.
I might have to talk to Martin about that.
- OK. - Ha ha ha!
Martin, I need a word later, all right?
Dick: With Nicole already lining up their next booking,
there's a surprise treat for the guests.
Man: * È sempre misero chi a lei s'affida *
* Chi le confida mal cauto... *
Dick: For Nicole and Stephan, the evening's been a triumph.
Stephan: I think it was a great idea to change it
to an event space.
People love it, and that was the aim of it,
like, people would be able to enjoy the place.
* È mobil' *
Stephan: It's so romantic.
It's such a beautiful setting.
Charming. Well done.
Ha ha ha! Thanks so much.
* E di *
* Pensier' *
[Applause]
Dick: It's a vital first step in their bid
to make the chateau self-sufficient.
Stephan: We're really happy with it.
Nicole: It is as I imagined.
It's quite nice. I quite like it. Ha ha!
Stephan: Could have given up somewhere along the road,
but it brought life back to a bare shell.
Nicole: And there's a lot that we still need to do.
There's a light bulb missing there.
- Shh. - Ha ha ha!
Dick: These two have worked incredibly hard.
I can't think of anyone better to take
this magnificent old chateau on to the next stage
of its life.
All the best, guys.
Next time...
when I attempt to salvage the children's
trampoline from our moat...
Oh, dear.
Dick, voice-over: It's anyone's guess if I actually
know what I'm doing.
At this stage, I'm not 100% sure what's going to happen,
but with a bit of a luck, it'll be in the dark,
so nobody will know.
With one couple's roof in desperate need of repair...
It's pretty grim. Every time it rains,
I have to come out with the buckets.
Dick: they hold an event to bring in
some much-needed cash.
- 55 plus 30. - 75.
What did you say, 75?
Let's write this down.
Dick: Easier said than done.
[Clatter]
Oops!
Just trying not to panic now.
Dick: Stephanie struggles to face a big day of work...
Stephanie, oh, come on, darling.
You must get up.
Dick: but soon gets into the swing of it.
Stephanie: It's not every day we have a digger
to play with.
Right. Ready.
It's hard to be gentle with a digger.
Dick: And after Tim and Margreeth come to ours
to talk about their struggling business...
Dick: Come on in, come on in. Tim: Wow! I can't get
over this place. Amazing, man.
Dick: they leave with their heads full of ideas.
Tim: I can really see this being a sort of
turning point, you know?
So inspiring.
Tim: We've got so many things we can do.