Inside the Château with Lionel and Claire

Our Chateau Life
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

Join us as we share the highs, lows, and unforgettable moments of living in a historic French château. From the joys of daily life with our dogs, Mimi and Margaux, to the challenges of restoration projects at Château de La Vergne, we take you behind the scenes of château ownership. Whether you're dreaming of buying a château, curious about French culture, or simply love a good renovation story, this podcast has something for everyone. Expect tips for potential château buyers, tales of navigating life in rural France, and plenty of laughs along the way.

  1. Sep 14

    We Were Told To Stop Being Funny… So This Happened

    Welcome back to Inside the Château, our biweekly podcast — recorded outside today, because apparently cloudy weather counts as ideal studio lighting when you live in the French countryside.This time, a perfectly innocent conversation about mysterious wealth somehow leads to drug barons, shipping magnates, Lionel’s almost-Airbnb idea, a YouTube comment telling us to stop being funny, Claire’s discovery of Mummy Brown paint, and the possible launch of The Inappropriate Paint Company.We also talk about decorating the château for ourselves rather than imaginary future buyers, French film dubbing, Lionel’s schooldays among the unexpectedly wealthy, people climbing over fences to take photos, surprise visitors at the gate, and whether one day we might run away to a jungle house in Vietnam or Brazil.Monty the mower makes several appearances, the dogs remain spectacularly unhelpful, and as usual, the château is less a project and more a very large, very needy character in our lives.Enjoy more slightly off the wall conversation, what we do best 😊 L&C xxx👉 BUY US A COFFEE (guaranteed video reply!)Prefer a one-off way to support the adventure? BUY US A COFFEE and help fund the glorious chaos, questionable decisions and next chapter at the château.https://buymeacoffee.com/ourchateaulife👉 PATREON If you would like to help keep the lights on, the cameras rolling, and two slightly over-ambitious château owners out of trouble, our PATREON community makes this life possiblehttps://www.patreon.com/cw/OurChateauLife👉 AMAZON WISHLISTMany of you have kindly asked how you can help us here at the château.We’ve added an Amazon Wishlist with a few useful things for the house, garden, dogs and filming. There is never any obligation, but every thoughtful gift is hugely appreciated and genuinely helps.https://ourchateaulife.com/wishlist

    We Were Told To Stop Being Funny… So This Happened

  2. Aug 28

    Would We Buy This Château Again?

    In this episode of Inside the Château, we ask a question that sounds simple until you actually try to answer it: are we living the life we thought we wanted?We talk about leaving London, losing our business during Covid, buying the château, and the strange gap between the fantasy of a life and the reality of living it every day. There are also forged parking permits, too many antique beds, Lionel’s longing for a first-class ticket anywhere, strong opinions on tasting menus, expensive paint, cameras we absolutely do not need, getting older, rural France, and one unexpected dinner party question involving a gun under the bed.As ever, it’s less of a plan and more of a meander.Much Love Lionel & Claire xxx👉 BUY US A COFFEE (guaranteed video reply!)Prefer a one-off way to support the adventure? BUY US A COFFEE and help fund the glorious chaos, questionable decisions and next chapter at the château.https://buymeacoffee.com/ourchateaulife👉 PATREON If you would like to help keep the lights on, the cameras rolling, and two slightly over-ambitious château owners out of trouble, our PATREON community makes this life possiblehttps://www.patreon.com/cw/OurChateauLife👉 AMAZON WISHLISTMany of you have kindly asked how you can help us here at the château.We’ve added an Amazon Wishlist with a few useful things for the house, garden, dogs and filming. There is never any obligation, but every thoughtful gift is hugely appreciated and genuinely helps.https://ourchateaulife.com/wishlist

    Would We Buy This Château Again?

  3. Aug 27

    We Counted The Rooms And Immediately Regretted It

    This week’s podcast begins with Claire covered in paint, Lionel asking dangerous questions, and the slow realisation that choosing one bedroom colour is difficult enough before you remember there are roughly twenty-four other rooms waiting patiently behind it.We chat about being bored of DIY, Château DIY arriving to film at exactly the wrong moment, swallows causing chaos in the bedroom, French versus British drinking habits, Alexa accidentally joining the audience, a coffee machine with unreasonable demands, Monty the robot mower misbehaving, and whether Lionel’s right shoelace may be haunted.There is also the important matter of what we would do at the château if we won the lottery — which starts sensibly with finishing things properly and quickly becomes pools, gardens, eco-heating, London houses, Devon houses and probably a lot of camera equipment.We can dream! L&C xxx 👉 BUY US A COFFEE (guaranteed video reply!)Prefer a one-off way to support the adventure? BUY US A COFFEE and help fund the glorious chaos, questionable decisions and next chapter at the château.https://buymeacoffee.com/ourchateaulife👉 PATREON If you would like to help keep the lights on, the cameras rolling, and two slightly over-ambitious château owners out of trouble, our PATREON community makes this life possiblehttps://www.patreon.com/cw/OurChateauLife👉 AMAZON WISHLISTMany of you have kindly asked how you can help us here at the château.We’ve added an Amazon Wishlist with a few useful things for the house, garden, dogs and filming. There is never any obligation, but every thoughtful gift is hugely appreciated and genuinely helps.https://ourchateaulife.com/wishlist

    We Counted The Rooms And Immediately Regretted It

  4. Jul 25

    We’re Not Living in a Museum, Lionel Finally Snapped Over a Light Switch

    This week on Inside the Château, a perfectly innocent viewer question about white sockets sends Lionel into a surprisingly passionate defence of modern electrics, personal taste, and why we have absolutely no intention of turning our home into a museum.We also chat about Monty the mower’s growing personality, whether robots deserve tea breaks, the impossible business of finding curtains, five years of living at the château, why we need to escape the place occasionally to appreciate it properly, and a more personal update from Lionel about his recent type 2 diabetes diagnosis and the changes that now come with it.Warm, wandering, occasionally ranty — exactly as a bi-weekly château podcast should be.Lionel & Claire xxx👉 BUY US A COFFEE (guaranteed video reply!)Prefer a one-off way to support the adventure? BUY US A COFFEE and help fund the glorious chaos, questionable decisions and next chapter at the château.https://buymeacoffee.com/ourchateaulife👉 PATREON If you would like to help keep the lights on, the cameras rolling, and two slightly over-ambitious château owners out of trouble, our PATREON community makes this life possiblehttps://www.patreon.com/cw/OurChateauLife👉 AMAZON WISHLISTMany of you have kindly asked how you can help us here at the château.We’ve added an Amazon Wishlist with a few useful things for the house, garden, dogs and filming. There is never any obligation, but every thoughtful gift is hugely appreciated and genuinely helps.https://ourchateaulife.com/wishlist👉 This isn't really a renovation project. It's a life. Today's episode is just one page of a much bigger story.👉 Leave us a comment. We read them all, and some of our best conversations begin there.👉 Join us again. The château will almost certainly have found a new way to surprise us by then.👉 Follow along so you never miss a chapter in the ongoing adventures of Lionel, Claire, Mimi, Margaux and the rest of the cast.👉 Between episodes, you'll find the bits we couldn't fit into the vlog on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK and TIKTOK: @ourchateaulife👉 Our website:https://www.ourchateaulife.com

    We’re Not Living in a Museum, Lionel Finally Snapped Over a Light Switch

  5. Jul 6

    Americans Keep Calling Us “Cute”… We Finally Found Out Why

    It turns out that being called “cute” can cause a surprising amount of confusion when you are British.This week, we are under the tree at the château, with the dogs demanding carrots and Margaux attempting to dig her way to China, when we fall into a rather unexpected conversation about the things our American viewers say to us. Apparently, “cute” does not mean quite what Lionel thought it meant… and Claire may have been using “lovely” in ways she should perhaps investigate.From posh voices and proper jobs to pants, thongs and cheeky dogs, we discover just how many innocent British words can become very different conversations across the Atlantic.As ever, it starts with a simple question and ends somewhere completely ridiculous.We hope you enjoy our chats, now go and join Patreon! 😊❤️ Lionel xxx👉 If you would like to help keep the lights on, the cameras rolling, and two slightly over-ambitious château owners out of trouble, our Patreon community makes this life possible: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/OurChateauLife👉 Prefer a one-off way to support the adventure? Buy us a coffee and help fund the glorious chaos, questionable decisions and next chapter at the château:https://buymeacoffee.com/ourchateaulife👉 This isn't really a renovation project. It's a life. Today's episode is just one page of a much bigger story.👉 Leave us a comment. We read them all, and some of our best conversations begin there.👉 Join us again. The château will almost certainly have found a new way to surprise us by then.👉 Follow along so you never miss a chapter in the ongoing adventures of Lionel, Claire, Mimi, Margaux and the rest of the cast.👉 Between episodes, you'll find the bits we couldn't fit into the vlog on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok: @ourchateaulife

    Americans Keep Calling Us “Cute”… We Finally Found Out Why

  6. Jun 22

    Inside the Château: We Asked Viewers To Prove They’re Real

    This week we found ourselves under the tree, in the heat, with a film crew due to arrive, a drinks party to host, a podcast to record, and the familiar realisation that we only seem to function when a deadline is breathing down our necks.Somehow that led us from château chaos to airport panic, from Lionel’s hatred of last-minute travel stress to Claire being accused of smuggling “ancient artefacts” out of Morocco. There’s also Margot interrupting the outdoor studio, marathon runners being sent round the most annoying path in France, the robo mower finally entering the conversation, and a rather lovely thought about all of you watching us from wherever you are.So this week we have a request: send us a photo of yourselves watching Our Château Life. We see numbers on a screen, but it would be wonderful to see the actual people behind them. Unless, of course, you really are monsters. Nice monsters, obviously.Lionel & Claire xxx

    Inside the Château: We Asked Viewers To Prove They’re Real

  7. Jun 5

    Inside the Château: From Twits to Roadblocks

    This week on our podcast inside the château, we’re talking about online “twits,” perspective, and one very unexpected Sunday morning in rural France.Lionel & Claire xxxAfter a lovely community event at the château, the weekend took a turn when a closed road, some raised voices, and a very French misunderstanding made a simple trip to the shop far more dramatic than expected. It’s one of those moments that could only happen in everyday château life.We also reflect on how to deal with unkind comments, the small kindnesses that mean so much, and the strange, funny, frustrating realities of living in the French countryside.Thank you for joining us in the château for another conversation. We’re very glad you’re here.

    Inside the Château: From Twits to Roadblocks

  8. May 24

    Inside the Château: A Small Decision With Big Consequences

    A colour decision shouldn’t feel this big… and yet somehow it really does.In this episode of Inside the Château, we talk about finally choosing the colour for the gates, shutters, windows and doors — one of the first truly visible decisions that feels like our mark on the château. It’s a subtle choice, but one that says so much about how we want this house to feel.We also catch up on life at the château in the summer heat: picking cherries, making cherry vodka, cutting secret paths through the long grass, and enjoying the garden with the dogs and cats. Along the way, we drift into the realities of renovation, the things we miss about the UK, the quirks of French life, and why progress on a project like this rarely happens as quickly as people imagine.This is a quieter, more conversational episode, but full of the small details that make château life what it is.

    Inside the Château: A Small Decision With Big Consequences
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
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About

Join us as we share the highs, lows, and unforgettable moments of living in a historic French château. From the joys of daily life with our dogs, Mimi and Margaux, to the challenges of restoration projects at Château de La Vergne, we take you behind the scenes of château ownership. Whether you're dreaming of buying a château, curious about French culture, or simply love a good renovation story, this podcast has something for everyone. Expect tips for potential château buyers, tales of navigating life in rural France, and plenty of laughs along the way.

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