Escape to the Chateau - Episode Guide

Dick Strawbridge and his partner Angel Adoree dream of swapping their two bed flat in Southend for an idyllic life in France. They imagine their £280,000 budget will stretch to a small country cottage, a Parisian flat, or a tiny place near the sea. But when they find out how cheap French property prices are, they discover they can dream bigger - much bigger - and like 10,000 Brits who move to France every year, they head off over the Channel. But this is no ordinary move.

Engineer Dick Strawbridge and his partner, designer Angel Adoree, have moved to France to do up a 45-room fairytale chateau. With £20,000 left in the coffers, they have to do most of the renovation work themselves. They decide to spend £100 on some chickens and try to live as self-sufficiently as they can. The family has eggs every morning, but it's a different story with the heating and water. The chateau's 59 windows are crumbling, and the list of problems is endless. But while Dick is pushed to the limit, Angel is on a roll, seeing the chateau as a blank canvas to work on. The project has fallen massively behind schedule, especially as they plan to celebrate their wedding at the chateau in November, just a few months away. This is craft and construction on the grandest of scales.

Dick and Angel Strawbridge continue their French adventure in a second series. It's 18 months since they left their Southend flat for a new life in a fairytale castle in France, but restoring the dilapidated 45 room chateau which cost them only ú280k has not proved easy. With just nine rooms renovated so far and areas in the vast 12-acre estate still to explore, they've only just scratched the surface of the renovation. But the chateau must start paying for itself. The couple have grand plans for staging weddings and also to feed themselves through crops and livestock. The adventure has only just begun. In the first episode, Dick and Angel host their first ever paid event at the chateau. Dick tries to turn an old oil-tank into a pig-roaster. Angel creates a Versailles-inspired downstairs loo. And Dick seeks to harness the energy of the searing summer sun.

After successfully hosting a three day wedding at their French chateau, Dick and Angel are now keen to expand their business ideas. Could the two-acre moat provide a lucrative fishing spot? Could their private woodland prove a forager's fantasy? Renovation work at the chateau continues with Angel's vision for a luxurious second guest suite taking shape. Angel also wants an elevator installed, pushing Dick's engineering skills to the very limit. Will the chateau survive such a monumental conversion?

As winter descends on the chateau and Christmas looms, Dick and Angel Strawbridge rush to complete their huge to-do list before the arrival of the family from England for a grand French Yuletide. The lift installation is testing Dick's ingenuity and enthusiasm to the max, while Angel continues to uncover treasures in the attic, including an historic collection of old vinyl records. Dick and Angel rush to get all their ducks in a row as eventually the fires are lit and the Christmas lights sparkle, and the heart of the once deserted 19th century chateau begins to beat again.

Dick and Angel Strawbridge continue their adventures in France for a third series. It's two and a half years since the couple swapped their flat in Southend for a 19th century Chateau in France - which cost them only £280,000. The intrepid couple have spent the time converting the Chateau De La Motte Husson from a derelict sleeping beauty into the fairy tale castle of their dreams. But with only half of the 45 rooms completed, there is still a huge amount of work to be done - including growing their fledgling events business, converting the outbuildings, and bringing the walled garden back to life. With more than 20 rooms still in a state of serious disrepair, Angel wants to create a special retreat for the whole family - with plans for a stripes and safari theme. But do they have a serious roof problem? Is Angel's purchase of a clapped-out Citroen van a good idea? And what have the local tree surgeons done to the lime trees at the front of the building?

It's Spring and Dick buys a tractor, with plans to tame the walled garden. Angel designs a new boudoir with black walls and mirrors. The couple also consider truffle farming.

Life at the Chateau continues. It's late spring and the wedding season is looming. With eight booked, Dick and Angel's lives are about to get busier than ever. Angel transforms the Citroën into a stunning mobile bar. Dick and his builder mates clear 150 years of rubbish from the stone barn and hope to turn a stable into a flat for Angel's parents. Angel visits a master florist while Dick seeks a solution to the pollarded lime trees at the front of the property. The loss of shade from the trees has put Dick in Angel's bad books and tensions are rising.

Dick and Angel Strawbridge continue their adventures in France for a fourth series. It's three years since they swapped their flat in Southend for a dilapidated 19th century chateau in the Loire. The intrepid couple have made great strides, but there's still much left to do. In this series, they take on the stables - destined to become home for Angel's parents - while continuing to grow their events business. In the first episode, it's summer and Dick and Angel are busier than ever with seven weddings and 14 food lovers' weekends to prepare for. There's also the garden, the stables, the back staircase, a family trip to Paris, and an astonishing floating adventure.

It's Dick's birthday and Angel has organised a romantic balloon trip over the chateau with breathtaking views at sunrise. The walled garden is bursting with fresh fruit and vegetables that need harvesting. The couple are also up against the clock to complete the renovation of the old stables. And Dick wants to make jam, turn pears into booze, and give his old copper pans a new lease of life. Angel is also starting to put her latest plan in place - a geodesic dome on Dick's floating platform.

As the leaves turn to gold at the chateau, Dick and Angel are battening down the hatches for winter. Top of Dick's never-ending to do list is fixing the crumbling stucco. Dick and Angel also head to a 'festival of the stomach' in Rouen, looking for inspiration on what to do with all their ripe fruit and vegetables. And Angel adds the finishing touches to the floating geodesic dome for the ultimate family sleepover under the stars.

Dick Strawbridge and his partner Angel throw open the shutters of their French chateau for a new season. Spring is in the air and there are some rather unusual plans afoot. It's the couple's fourth year in France and they're keen to bring the interior magic of the 19th-century chateau outside, by creating a luxurious glamping experience, complete with outdoor kitchen and bathroom, wood-fired hot tub, and an enormous seven-metre? glamping dome. The problem is the first guests are booked to arrive in just six weeks' time and with incessant rain, currently only a muddy field exists. But it's not just the weather making demands on Dick and Angel's time, there's also a big family Easter lunch to prepare, as Dick's mum and sisters are coming to stay. Not to mention a huge wedding to host the same weekend as the glamping site is due to open. The year's only started, but have Dick and Angel already taken on too much?

The chateau's 19th-century attic and its forgotten contents have always been a source of inspiration for Angel. Now she is keen to transform an attic room into a stunning studio, where she can design as well as store her vintage treasures. Angel and Dorothy go on a mother-daughter trip to Paris. Dick has his own ideas for repurposing some ancient tools he finds in the outbuildings. As the cherry blossom bursts into life, two special friends return to the chateau for their spring wedding; before the Strawbridges throw a surprise birthday celebration for Angel's mum, with Dick's purpose-built open-fire popcorn maker providing the snacks.

Dick Strawbridge and Angel Adoree host their last wedding of the year, and they welcome a fleet of vintage Citroens, whose drivers are making a pit-stop on a charity tour.

As the beginning of autumn arrives, Dick Strawbridge passes on his conker skills to the family, before the serious business resumes and the next phase of the renovation begins. Dick and his wife Angel Adoree get to work converting the old tack room into a grand entrance way. Angel knocks down walls and upcycles an old glass door, while Dick lays a new concrete floor.

Dick and Angel Strawbridge's to-do list is as long as ever, and with no guests, weddings or events at the chateau this year, they use their engineering and design skills to tackle some major projects. First on the list is transforming one of the old outbuildings into a supersized workshop for chateau-sized jobs.

With autumn just around the corner, it's a chance for the Strawbridge family to make the most of the wild larder on their doorstep. Dick is determined to make sloe gin, while Angel presses on with her plan to create a library in the pepper pot tower.

Dick, Angel, Dorothy and Arthur, as well as Angel's parents Jenni and Steve prepare to celebrate a family Christmas in France. With an old 19th-century chateau ledger found in the attic and classic cookbooks to hand, the Strawbridges take inspiration from Christmases past, discovering what food, festivities, gifts and games would have been like in bygone eras. Dick and Angel's imagination goes into overdrive as they create a winter wonderland with an ice rink at its heart. Later, as the family settles down to dinner, so the sound of traditional hand bells rings out across the chateau and they wonder if their exploration of the past will create chateau traditions for the future.

Dick, Angel, Arthur and Dorothy share more enchanting tales from the Chateau, as they continue the renovation of their 19th-century fairytale home and grounds. With weddings and events on hold for the second year, Dick and Angel bite the bullet and make the big decision to tackle the exterior of the Chateau. The roof and outside walls are their biggest project to date and the Chateau quickly becomes a building site.

Dick and Angel start work on the biggest, messiest and most expensive job they've ever done at the Chateau - repairing, re-tiling and re-insulating the whole of the original roof. They also transform the preserves cupboard and go hunting in the walled garden for ingredients to make home-grown mint tea and rainbow sweetcorn relish.

n Dick Strawbridge and his wife Angel bring an abandoned French chateau back to life?

With life a bit quieter than normal, Dick and Angel throw a Great British garden party for Arthur and Dorothy's friends, and work finally starts on re-slating the chateau roof

Arthur and Dorothy are now seven and eight, and growing up fast. They will soon need separate bedrooms - so Angel comes up with an ingenious plan to create a mezzanine. As the re-slating of the roof continues, Dick and Angel not only launch into knocking down walls and building new ones but preserving old wallpaper, creating memory furnishings from the kids' old clothes, as well as finding time to pick some strawberries in the garden.

Angel discovers that the chateau has a vast attic space running the length of the building and rising to the ridge of the roof. While Dick is glad to have some more storage space, Angel has bigger plans - transforming it into a space-inspired bar complete with balconies from which they can watch the stars. The project will require skylights, a new staircase and unique use of insulation - but proves worth it when a cloudless night provides the perfect chance to look for shooting stars.

Angel sets about restoring the Chateau's walls to their original glory using computer mock-ups to try and match the existing colour. Part of a traditional device used for making cider is discovered while clearing out the piggery, so the hunt is soon on to locate the rest of it. Inspired by the ancient piece of machinery, the family collects apples to make their very own juice.

The wooden double front door with its delicate metal tracery, the metal awnings over the windows, and the stone balustrade edging the front steps, are all in a state of disrepair. Angel's father, a former jeweller, steps in to try and make a copy of the huge 150-year-old key to the front door. The family goes to the beach to collect razor clams.

Dick, Angel, Arthur and Dorothy enjoy a magical festive adventure in this Christmas episode, with a family celebration inspired by a very special part of France - Colmar in the Alsace region, close to the German border. They discover an enchanting medieval town that makes Christmas feel more magical than ever. It's not long before they are taking part in a festive treasure hunt, sampling local baked delicacies, trying their hand at fondue, and discovering the ice and crémant wines that the region is synonymous with. Back at the chateau, the Strawbridge traditions are not forgotten. Angel, her mum Jenni and Dorothy head out into the chateau grounds to collect the fir and foliage to make the annual Christmas wreath.

Dick Strawbridge and Angel Adoree prepare to open their home for wedding season after two years - but there are still plenty of jobs to do before the first guests arrive. Work continues on giving the 150-year-old exterior walls a 21st-century new look, while Dick and Angel have a job to do in the room that was once the chateau's cider and vinegar store.

Dick and Angel are preparing to welcome guests once more, from cleaning and weeding to tidying the 12 acres of land, it's all hands-on deck to get the chateau wedding ready. Angel is in her element as she makes the wedding's floral arrangements, while Dick swaps hats and performs his duties as a Celebrant.

In the spring, the family turn their attention to the beloved walled garden. On the north-facing wall, there is something rather special hidden beneath the ivy that they would like to tackle; a 19th-century folly in need of renovation. Before Angel can transform the interior, Dick has to tackle the overgrown bamboo forest.

The summer's drought and high temperatures have left the moat's water level lower than ever, and the family work together to save the fish. Over in the walled garden, the recent transformation of the folly has opened Dick and Angel's eyes to the potential of the area around it. They want to enhance the space by creating a new outdoor entertaining area.

After eight long years, the peach tree in the walled garden is finally fruiting, and Dick, Angel, Arthur, and Dorothy can't wait to try the very first peach ever grown by the Strawbridge family. Dick and Angel will also soon be hosting a very important 50th birthday party for one of their closest friends, Sophie, without whom they would never have met.

Dick and Angel visit one of the last unexplored areas of the attic. Among the dust and cobwebs, they uncover more of the chateau's unexpected treasures, including an old train set. With the children growing up fast, Dick and Angel want to create a place for them to call their own - a room filled with vintage games as well as new ones. Dick and Angel have bought a classic Renault 4CV dating back to the 1950s that's in need of restoration.

Dick and Angel create a conservatory-style winter garden room. Meanwhile, the chateau is busy hosting its biggest wedding ever, so there is also lots of organisation to do. Dick and Angel organise a huge Christmas party for all their family and friends, and it's time to sort out the invites - which involve fudge, sparkles and a tin can.

The Strawbridges prepare their festive celebrations, and want to thank everyone who has helped them along the way with the chateau's biggest party yet. All hands are on deck collecting and decorating the Christmas tree, preparing a festive feast, and carrying out time honoured family traditions. Dick, Papi Steve, Arthur and Dick's eldest son James head to the beaches of Brittany to collect oysters.