Our great escape
WITH SEVEN YEARS OF RENOS BEHIND THEM, DICK AND ANGEL STRAWBRIDGE ARE STILL DARING TO LIVE THE CHATEAU LIFE
What started with a plan to downsize and embrace “the simple life” ended with Dick and Angel Strawbridge becoming the proud owners of a derelict 45-room chateau in rural France.
The down-to-earth couple have detailed the extensive – and flamboyant – renovation of their vast estate on the reality series, Escape to the Chateau.
Now, as the show draws to a close and the couple head Down Under with their two children, Arthur and Dorothy, for a welldeserved holiday (and a speaking tour), they reflect on how a weekend in France changed their lives forever.
“We were in a little tiny holiday house, and we realised that we could buy a house like that with our credit card there and then, the property was so cheap [in France],” Dick laughs.
“We knew we were going to start a family, so we thought this would be a good way to have the simple life, with little children running around in a house that had no mortgage.
“And there would be no need to work because we had royalties from books we’d written before so we could survive without doing any work. And then Angel got on the internet to look for properties and half an hour later she was looking at chateaus.”
Angel laughs that she was merely “doing my due diligence” when she started researching houses substantially grander than the cottage they initially discussed.
Angel has a passion for interior design and a background in hospitality, while Dick was an engineer in the army before making the move into TV hosting shows such as Scrapheap Challenge.
Together she rightly felt they had the skills needed to transform the dilapidated building – which had been unoccupied for 40 years — into a successful wedding reception venue and family home.
The couple have been filming their series for so long now that their young children, Arthur and Dorothy, don’t remember a time without cameras.
Ultimately though, it was a desire to protect the children that made them decide to end the show.
“As a parent, you’re aware of what happens to children when they start to feel self-conscious,” Angel says.
“And they are almost at that age now. It’s been lovely (having family life captured on film) and we don’t want to ever spoil that.
“We don’t know what the next few years is going to bring… we just want to allow them to be themselves in whatever direction that takes without worrying about anything.”
Not that there’s ever been anything controversial or salacious in Escape to the Chateau.
While a lot of reality shows rely on conflict and confected drama to keep the viewers engrossed, the thrilling plot points in Escape to the Chateau are more likely to be about the stash of antique wallpaper found in the attic or how to give a dusty taxidermied duck a new lease on life.
“We’re both problem solvers,” Dick explains.
“We have different complementary skills. We come together. Yeah, at times, when we were doing 20-hour days, it generated a bit of heat, but nothing other than a quick grump. Our life isn’t about conflict, so why skew it for telly reasons?”
While Escape to the Chateau is ending, the couple scoff at any suggestion that means their renovation is finally finished. Nor is their TV career over – the pair will continue to front their various spin-off shows. But the break in filming has given them the time to visit Australia for a speaking tour and family holiday.
“Australia was the first country – outside the UK – to adopt the chateau,” she says. “We have always got lots of lovely correspondence from our fans in Australia so it made sense that it would be our first port of call.”
The family plan to visit the Blue Mountains, to get a selfie with a quokka on Rottnest Island, to eat a western rock lobster and, of course, visit lots of op shops to fossick for hidden treasures.
Given the property prices here in Australia, it’s hard to believe the couple snapped up their palatial pad and its surrounding 4.8ha of land, for just under $485,000 in 2015.
And – thanks to their painstaking renovation work, that included installing plumbing, electricity and heating – it is now worth more than $3.5m.
“When we bought it, it was cheaper than buying a bed-sit in London,” Dick says.
“And property prices continue to go up. For us, the decision was about quality of life. We live in the most beautiful part of France. We have a walled garden. And a moat. And wildlife frolicking about.”
Contrary to rumours the entire project was orchestrated by the TV network, Angel says: “We were doing this (buying the chateau) before the television.
“Because Dick was in television, a few different channels wanted to follow what we were doing. We talked about it for a long time before making the decision. In the end we thought, worst case scenario, we’ve got something absolutely gorgeous captured on film.”
Dick says the show was a big gamble because, back then “the ridiculousness of buying a chateau was something that a lot of people didn’t know about”.
Certainly, the popularity of Escape to the Chateau has spawned copycats and inspired many people to relocate to France from the UK. While Dick is always eager to encourage others to follow their dreams, he would stop short of urging them to buy a rundown chateau.
“Because it’s a bloody stupid thing to do,” he laughs. “But you only get one pass at this world. And as far as we’re concerned, we’re going for it. I met this girl 20 years younger than me, and we ended up falling in love and, we made a decision, and now we live in a castle with children. It’s ridiculous!
“You can’t write the story. You have to do it. So hopefully people (see us) and realise going forward is the right answer as opposed to wishing for it.”