COLUMN
Appearing in the ‘Chateau DIY’ TV series has been a great way to share their story, says Erin Choa
“We’d love to film at your château for a TV series…” I still remember this surprise phone call after my amateur foray into social media. Having added the #chateau at random on my first-ever post, I received a call 10 minutes later from a TV researcher. I didn’t know what a hashtag was but I’d added it all the same, following the advice of a trendy friend, and that’s how the production company found us.
I took the photograph for my first post in the burgeoning golden light of early summer, the turrets soaring through the verdure, and then suddenly the phone rang, simple as that. We had just arrived at Château de Bourneau as guests of the previous owners who had graciously invited us to live with them to learn the ropes of estate management before the formal exchange of contracts, and that summer morning the light filtering across the park hit me with the kind of intensity that stops you in your tracks.
This photo, posted into the ether of the internet, was my first experience of the power of social media and made me realise that other people out there also appreciate the beauty of châteaux – and what an easy way to share our project with the world.
However, I completely misunderstood what the production company wanted. Thinking that they were interested in using the château for a location, I had images of a sumptuous period drama being filmed within our turrets and a gallant regency hero galloping across our meadows. It would be Pride & Prejudice French-style with a handsome Monsieur d’Arcy-type hero in fabulous britches and powerful heroines in floating muslin sighing through the buttercups.
Little did I realise that the production company was pitching a new series that followed intrepid Brits who had swapped ‘normality’ for the châtelain-lifestyle and they wanted to feature us ‘behind the scenes’, boldly slaying cobwebs and mildew to bring the château back to life.
Perhaps it was fortunate that we didn’t realise that they wanted to film us as I’m not sure we’d have been keen to feature our haphazard off-thecuff learning c
