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Our Chateau Garden Surprise Was Hidden In The Trees! | French Chateau Renovations



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Join us, Daphne and Ian, as we embark on our new chateau renovation projects! This week we are visited by Sebastian, an architect who helps give us ideas for our wedding suite renovation. Francis returns to help repair the farmhouse roof. We finish digging out the remaining garden boundary design and happen to find something hidden just beyond the trees!

Our beau chateau (The 500-year-old, Chateau De Lesigny), is located near Paris, France. Most of the structures around the chateau domain need a full restoration, so we are investing everything we have into making the property thrive! We are learning more about french culture and developing new skills along the way!

As a French/American UC Berkeley graduate in Agriculture (Daphne), and a U.S. Air Force Tactical Response Force Veteran/ Kinesiologist (Ian), we share a love for challenges and adventure. We have a long road ahead of us and we are excited to share the experience with you!

You can support our renovation projects by joining our Patreon Community, where you can also gain access to exclusive videos and behind the scene access with Daphne and Ian! All patron funding is used to renovate this historical French Chateau. Every patron is paramount to our chateau renovations and we thank you all tremendously!

Produced by Daphne and Ian
Videography & Editing by Ian

All music tracks used in this video are licensed by Artlist:

47 Comments

  2. Brian3989

    One thought about trees is have smaller rooted stock, so they are easier when it comes to picking fruit.

  3. Carolyn Shepherd

    I love your videos! Your youthful energy and loving dynamic bode well for great success with the challenging job ahead of you, and I really look forward to watching things progress🤗. Thanks for sharing!

  5. Pat Bowman

    I love your chateau and enjoy your channel. You are the nicest and best looking couple. I love to see your progress. Good luck!

  6. Lucy Young

    Fun video. Looking forward to seeing the garden come together. Be careful placing the trees, don’t want to plant them too close together.

  7. Hanne Olsen

    Figs and nuts are to bushy to be in the ornamental garden, walnut will take 20 years to give any harvest and the grow to 6-12 meters in hight.
    Stick to pear, apple, cherry and plum
    They can be grown on different root stocks so you can choose the same finished hight for all the trees
    Along a sunbathed wall you can plant abricot nectarine and peach and then put fig and haselnut in a place where you can have some big bushy plants
    If you have time go visit "le potagere du roi" in Versailles just 5 min from the castle or see the gardens of Villandry 😄

  9. RnG Gall

    Just a thought, while leaf blowing is wildly satisfying a mulching lawn 'vacuum' will remove the leaves, not just move them and it will give you a super mulch for around trees, io garden paths and as an addition to any kitchen waste composting you do.

  11. thebombson

    ohh the stairs 😍THE VIEW! On the garden and Chateau… This is becoming a very special place! Thank you for sharing the garden layout sketch and process already, it's so interesting to see and learn. "Perspective and difference" is a great tip and it makes all the sense in the kinds of trees you mentioned. 🍀

  13. VF L

    Have you thought of maybe planting espalier fruit trees around the edge of the garden, rather than planting trees that will grow very big in the middle of the squares? For a formal garden I think espaliers could be lovely and you could keep them quite low, so they wouldn't cast too much shade on other plants. I also love Daphne's idea of an olive tree in the middle of each square – but I would put one in all four squares to keep the symmetry. Personally I think figs and cherries would be too big and unruly for a formal garden. The hidden stairs are so exciting – can't wait to see you reveal them 🙂

  15. Marilyn Coover

    Germans often use a propane weed torch on cobblestone areas. Fast and effective. They also use vinegar in areas that aren’t safe to use the torch.

  16. GT

    Throw money at us…we have to pay expensive architects to keep our unaffordable dreams alive whilst the outbuildings are crumbling and we’re destroying history 😡🤮

  17. Angela

    Staircases and walls are most likely a promenade. A raised viewing platform that you would walk (promenade) along to get the best view of the garden and it’s design pattern. Often times musicians would play as the guest would mill about. You might even find a structure or remains of a pavilion or other architectural features.
    It might be worth checking out the possibility of getting a historic garden grant for restoration of the garden. It seems that the bare bones are already in place and you could tweak it to incorporate todays garden interest – food production, more drought tolerant plantings etc. Incorporating the past and today.
    Definitely encourage you NOT to purchase and plant until you do a basic garden design yourselves or have a professional do a master plan design that you could chip away at by buying/planting as finances enable. I know it’s hard when you want to get going guilty myself but with thoughtful planning the garden could be an additional financial resource on its own, not just an accessory to the chateau.
    Either way best of luck and can’t wait to see what you discover once the chainsaw gets going!

  18. R. H.

    I was trying to find some old pictures or aerial views of your chateau that might show the walls and stairs in the garden but didn't have any luck. The historical imagery on google earth only gives a clear shot to about 2002. I did run across a couple old postcards of your chateau on ebay. I'm not sure what year they are from. It shows the north facade of your chateau with large trees in front of it and the little tower on the left had two extra floors with a clock on the front.

  20. Mathew Halpin

    Loving the vlogs guys! That garden has very wonderful symmetry. Cant you do the produce somewhere else and keep that formal. As there are just two of you I would just start with low hedging to bring out the shapes and leave the rest until you have more help and money. Don't rush it!

  26. Joni Marchese

    The garden is so big and beautiful and how exciting is that boundary wall and stairs, does the trees and brush area lose any of its foliage so you will be able to have a better site line with the chain saw? cannot wait to see where the stairs lead too. Love from N.Y.

  29. Pat King

    I like the leaves, they match the chateau trim bricks. The leaves are normal for Fall, heck with the photographers.

  31. Angela Vorhees

    What a cool discovery those hidden stairs were. Can't wait to see them uncovered. I think Archea ( sorry about the spelling) had probably already found them. 😉🐕 hugs to both the fur babies. I so enjoy your channel. Your personalities and voices are calming and positive, something most of us need now.

  35. James romaine

    Love the video
    What a find in the woods
    Can’t wait to see what else you find
    Are fruits trees expensive in France?

    James

  36. Native Texan

    France is beautiful but having raked leaves and pine straw as a child I can honestly say that to me there is no more beautiful place to live than the beach where there are nothing but palm trees. A big storm can bring down 4 or 5 palm fronds but it just takes a minute or 2 to clean up.

  37. S K

    Ive never seen fruit trees before in a formal garden. Is there maybe another area to plant these? Also fruit trees they may erode the grass over time. If you are a wedding venue it would be nice to have a space for outdoor weddings and photos. What about a filling the spaces with upright holly around the border, lavender, heather, dwarf cypress, variegated myrtle, maybe some bay trees or hydrangea, or citrus if the grow there ,which are evergreen, in the center. Maybe some ornamental trees? Something with burgandy foliage to pick up the colors of the castle? When ornamental trees lose thier foliage then they have lovely branches to look at in the winter. It is nìce to have growing food but maybe in another place? Hope its okay to share some thoughts. Ive just renovated a garden and made so many mistakes. I agree with other comments it should be really thought through. Perhaps a landscape designer would have a better sense what works really well in your region and is low maintanence. Fruit trees require a lot of work, contstantly needing fertilizing and pest control, once certain pests take over the ground can be contaminated for decades.

  38. terri kopke

    So much fun to discover the hidden stairs. You know there was a purpose for them the exciting thing is just what was the original intent? I love stuff like this!
    So nice to see Francis again, love to listen to him speak. Knowledgeable and funny. I love the grounds and buildings so much I am living vicariously through your videos. Just adore you two and the animals! See you next week.

  39. mike duda

    What a fantastic find. I can't wait to see what it looks like all cleared out! STAIRS To what???

  40. Frio Fun

    Take advice from someone who owns an estate and get a landscape design before planting. Maybe exchange services of a designer for a stay at the Chateau!

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