A PREVIOUS episode of Escape to the Chateau tested Dick Strawbridge’s patience.
His wife and business partner Angel Adoree’s drastic remodelling ideas left Dick shocked.
The couple had moved into their dream castle in France and wanted to convert the venue into a site for magical weddings, including their own.
However, Angel’s ideas for creating a magical honeymoon suite soon alarmed Dick.
Hoping that a wedding business would help the castle pay for itself, Angel was keen to get cracking.
The structure of the magnificent chateau has hardly changed since 1869, but Angel had some radical plans, prompting Dick to ask: “Right, OK, what’s going on?”
“What would be amazing is if you came in here and this was your wedding salon, and there was an archway or an opening here to the bedroom and the bathroom over there,” Angel explained.
Her plan was for the surrounding room, the Chambre du monsieur, to become a grand master bedroom with en suite, adjoining lounge area and a Rapunzel-esque sitting room.
To achieve the dream, they needed to knock through a three-foot-deep 150-year-old wall, but
Dick wanted to hit the brakes.
“That is one of the biggest walls in the house,” he cautioned.
“There’s a fireplace in that corner next door that got to support the whole wall above, and it’s not,” to which Angel queried: “Pretty important, isn’t it?”
“It’s quite important, yeah,” said an exasperated Dick.
“I don’t know how we actually do that because the thing is this is hollow in there going all the way up, I don’t know what route it takes.”
Determined to see her vision become reality, Angel said: “But I think it’s necessary.”
Without a budget for professional help, it became another job for Dick.
Speaking to the cameras alone, Dick explained: “This is the biggest wall in the house, which is becoming an archway, what a monumental pain in the a**e.”
Escape to the Chateau is available to watch on My4.
