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

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After extensive renovations on a shoestring budget, the couple married at their family home in November 2015. Her accent doesn’t help but the most irritating thing is that she is obviously reading it from a their script.

I loved this aspect of the book together with the artistic inspiration I felt on following Angels decorating projects. So I’ve written a post on how I make my wreaths from foraged greenery around my village and flowers from my garden. I simply love it when waiters are friendly and you can ask them for menu recommendations or new local events to attend.Well-written, extremely engaging, and peppered with details and anecdotes from behind the scenes, anyone with even the smallest admiration for or interest in the Strawbridges will enjoy spending a few days poring over this book. A Year at the Château follows Dick and Angel from when they first moved to France in the depths of winter and found bedrooms infested with flies, turrets inhabited by bats, the wind rattling through cracked windows, and just one working toilet, which flushed into the moat, through to the monumental efforts that went into readying The Château for their beautiful wedding and incredibly special first Christmas. As I read, I literally can’t stop smiling at the splendour and beautiful picture that Dick and Angel paint of the whole scene.

I wouldn't make all the same design choices, but it's really fun to read all about what they did in much more detail than the TV show allows. The different personalities are well drawn but I would say my favourite was probably designer Leo, the King of Style. At the halfway point, it is fair to say the Strawbridge’s might be a little too focused on the food aspects of France (and you can’t blame them), Thankfully, the aspects of the chateau eventually come back to the forefront and their journey continues.Dick and Angel Strawbridge go into even more depth on their first year in the Chateau de la Motte-Husson, which they bought in pretty rough condition, and renovated on a budget. I personally would've liked more focus on the specifics of doing up the chateau, but it was very enjoyable nonetheless. In fact it made me nostalgic for the early episodes (which unfortunately aren't currently available to me for streaming - I'll wait). Of course pictures tell a thousand words and the ones featured within the pages of the book add a nice touch and allow you further inside into their lives. The chateau would fight back at times but the mistakes that were made were learnt from and the couple’s collaborative effort achieved positive results.

I'm hoping that Living the Château Dream will also be more widely published so that I can read about the adventures and renovations that followed.The book recounts the couples first year at the chateau and their wedding preparations and of course the wedding it self. Seeing this book brought back all of those real life magic feelings and I couldn't get through it fast enough, reading all of the behind-the-scenes things, from their point of view was fascinating and honestly I want more.