How one former couple swapped two London flats for a 40-room chateau (2024)

In the late-seventeenth century, the Château de Lalande fell into the formidable hands of Anne Marie the Duchess of Montpensier, known as La Grande Mademoiselle for her refusal to marry, based on her belief that women were enslaved by the institution.

Just over 300 years later, the building is presided over by another strong woman, former Londoner, Stephanie Jarvis, 43, who owns the 20-bedroom Château with two former boyfriends but runs it on her own as a B&B.

Her château adventure began 14 years ago, when Stephanie, then 29, wanted to upgrade her two-bedroom flat in Clerkenwell for a house where she could live with a few friends.

Struggling with the pre-credit crunch house prices of London in 2005, she teamed up with her best friend (and ex-boyfriend) Nic, who also owned a two-bedroom flat in Stoke Newington.

It was as they started their house hunt that Stephanie realised that with their combined budget, and the exchange rate in their favour, they could realise a dream of hers held since childhood – to become the princess of her very own fairytale château in France.

After a year of château-hunting, Stephanie and Nic found themselves lord and lady of the Château de Lalande, an hour from Limoges in south-central France.

For the grand sum of £575,000, the pair’s two small London flats had bought them ownership of an historic 40-room, 16^th-century castle in the heart of the French countryside.

As Stephanie points out, “nowadays that’s the price of one London flat but at the time it took two.”

They moved straight in, accompanied by Stephanie’s then-boyfriend. Her French mother and Londoner father, who had converted a historic building into a care home for Alzheimer's patients when Stephanie was a child, moved in too.

“They bought a stately home in Suffolk and would do up one room and get a resident, do the next and get another resident.

"We had a flat in the attic but there was always a minimum of 30 people around so I was used to living surrounded with a lot of people and wanted to recreate that,” says Stephanie.

Having been seduced by the château’s picture-perfect exterior, the group found that the interior of the building needed a lot of work.

After living on site for a year to be sure of what they needed to do and how they were likely to use the 40 rooms, the bulk of the renovation work took around six years.

“The building is a lovely enfilade, which is a French room layout where each room leads into the next downstairs, so you get light from both sides because the building is only one room deep. But in the 19^th century – probably because it gets so cold in the winter – they added internal partitions, which blocked the light, so it was very dark inside. When we took the partition walls out light just flooded through,” says Stephanie.

The Seventies tiled floor had to be replaced, asbestos removed and the electrics and heating entirely replaced. Once this was complete, Stephanie was determined to do the more minor renovations and all the decoration herself.

“I spent about two years making curtains because there are 100 windows,” she says.

The château did not have many original features inside, which gave a lot of freedom when decorating, but some of the furniture, including an impressive bedroom suite, was bought from the previous owners and dates from just after the French revolution. It originally belonged to the de Nadaillac family, who were exiled to England during the revolution, fought with the British against Napoleon, and returned to France and the château in 1814.

Stephanie’s dream of owning a romantic château filled with friends and family was coming true. “And then they all left.”

Her then-boyfriend, Michael, who had bought a stake in the château, got a job in Amsterdam and moved away; Nic had to move back to London for work; and, the worst blow of all, her father died in 2009. Although he never saw the château fully decorated, his paintings now hang throughout the house. Stephanie’s mother continued to live at the château for a while but eventually met a new partner and now spends most of the year with him in South Africa.

It’s a project to renovate an apartment in the old granary as a living space for her mother that forms the basis for Stephanie’s appearance on the current series of Escape to the Château: DIY.

Presenter Dick Strawbridge also arrives to help her restore a 19^th century bread oven so she can host pizza evenings at the château, while his wife, Angel Adoree, helps Stephanie source antique frames for her father’s paintings.

Château de Lalande was featured on the first series of Escape to the Château: DIY, which has been a boon for the B&B business Stephanie runs.

Of even greater benefit however, says Stephanie, is the network of fellow château owners she has joined as a result of appearing on the show. It has provided enormous support while running a rural château on her own.

Château ownership may not be exactly how three-year-old Stephanie imagined it – “lying in bed being fed grapes with a fabulous wardrobe” – but she says the reality is, in fact, exactly what she wanted.

“Buying a château isn’t about profit, it’s not like the London property market,” says Stephanie. “It’s about accepting that all your spare money will go into this château for the rest of your life.

“But, in return, you get the château lifestyle. Complete tranquillity, beauty, living so close to nature and history, having a constantly changing social life and feeling that you’re part of something much bigger than yourself.

“There’s a magic to it, there really is.”

Escape to the Chateau: DIY is on Channel 4 at 4pm on weekdays and on All 4.