The Chateau Diaries #195 Fraudster Fanny & fraudsters Fleuries, pot and kettle!

[Lochness Monster]

Back from train journeys (how I'd love to take all those trains! !) and back to Halloween (Am I getting obsessed? Maybe.
Seems I am avoiding to brave the cold and wet to do some sorely needed garden maintenance!

A bit of scary storytelling by the Irish Mammy aka DB.
ENJOY!
What a night it turned out to be.....certainly not for the faint hearted....or anyone with a delicate stomach.....for me a strict Irish catholic, it was very challenging........
It started of with very strange goings on in the afternoon.....there were huge foot prints in the walled garden going out towards the forest....much too big for the peacocks....also there was a thump thump noise in the distance.....
Approx 400kms from Lalande, is the village of Plagne...some 150million years a 40m saurpod left its footprints in the mud.....
This was a very strange weekend....is it possible that 1 has been hibernating in the forest @ Lalande all this time......or is there another logical explanation.......Oh my goodness......
EVERY evening in the Marquis Suite....I kid you not...a sound coming from the the corner of the room like glasses clinking makes us all look up.....no one is upstairs...as the guests are in the marquis suite...what is the explanation....
I go for a shower & change into my Sunday best jogging bottoms( not that I have any desire to jog I might add!!), I polish my crocs & head over to the Chateau for dinner......
As I step in the door I can hear muffled voices.....I walk through the reception foyer which has 2 very elegantly dressed tables with lit candelabra....the flames are flickering.....yet there are no doors open...
I suddenly feel very very cold.....as I make my way towards the dinning room...a petite figure comes towards me with her head bowed muttering Compeyson..estella...I said hello with no response just a continual muttering of these two words......It was quickly starting to look like my Great Expectations of a wonderful evening were dwindling fast.......
My heart was beating...& the palms of my hands clammy....I was thinking did I fall & bang my head..or did I die & land in hell...as I approached the dinning room there were a number of shadowy figures in the dimly lit room.....not a familiar face in sight....
Sitting on a couch was a Nun with child...cuddled to a man she referred to as Compeyson......when the confused lady approached they covered their faces with a fan.....it was definitely the moment for a Hail Mary!!!
Was the meat under cooked....so many people had blood coming from their mouths.....
Dan should have left some cards for the Turkish dentist....a lot of prospective clients who would have benefited from a little bit of tooth filing!!!
There was another Bride & her beau who looked like the life was sucked out of them....
There were clowns but not the funny ones I was used to who splashed you with water from the lapel on their coat.....these were very sinister characters.......
Then we had a very tall gentleman dressed in black....who glared back if you glimpsed his way.......
There were spiders crawling over the food.......
Was the cabbage & beetroot marinated in the blood of the bride & her beau.....it certainly looked like it....
The dessert was a green coloured cheesecake....what could it possibly have been flavoured with.....& served with mutilated fingers..AGHHHH...when was I going to waken up from this nightmare.....
I was starting to feel queezy....was the cous cous I had just eaten...not really been cous cous at all...but rice made from the bodies who lost their fingers?????.........
A tall handsome man is walking about clearly trying to impress the other Nun, I don't know what vows she was considering breaking but I can confirm at that point 1 less than her companion....
Very very strange people indeed.........what was that thump thump ...oh my giddy aunt....is that a dinosaur in the corner?????
I could feel myself getting very dizzy.....my head was in a tailspin.....then....everything went black!!!!
The next thing I knew I was in my bed in the Marquis suite......was I dreaming.....I reached for my phone it was bleeping away about notifications......I looked at the gallery......well the rest is history.....the camera cannot lie!!!! lol!!!!.....
As I looked across the court yard I could see Isabelle & Percy getting ready to leave........I decided I would not mention anything about the previous nights shenanigens unless they did.......not a word was spoke about it.......silence is golden..........
Note to one's self Brenda....avoid Halloween when next visiting Chateau de Lalande..........
Thank you everyone for a great night.
Well done to Maria & Philip for preparing the food.
Pavlina done a great job on the decorations.
A special thanks to all those who created their amazing costumes to entertain us.
PS. Thanks for the photos girls xx

Crikey .
Was this a reunion of a different nature.
Same sex routine….
Please could the local mayor be sent these photos….

 

[Hemerocallis]

A bit of scary storytelling by the Irish Mammy aka DB.
ENJOY!
change into my Sunday best jogging bottoms( not that I have any desire to jog I might add!!), I polish my crocs & head over to the Chateau for dinner......

Brenda really dressed up for the dinner at shitto: sweatpants and crocs, wow!

"Anyone who wears sweatpants has lost control of their life."

 

[Freesia54]

Frankly I can't believe that anyone is still watching that crap, but it's pathetic that they can't get anything out on time when they literally do NOTHING ELSE!!!. All the other Youtubers manage to publish on time AND actually renovate their Chateaus

I don't think the viewing of this rubbish is the reason people watch, they do so because it is another opportunity for them to get to see and hang on to every word of their Queen of Lielande. Regardless of the content they will watch because it is her, no other reason... She presumably has some form of hypnotic power over them, they can't see past the image that is portrayed on screen. Half of them have no idea of the lay out of the place, what the rooms are called, which have been decorated and which are still to do, where the outbuildings are, where Amourty does his woodery stuff or who some are the characters are, you can see the questions in the chat, they are either late to the party or don't listen. It's a form of mass hysteria.. talking of hysteria... did anyone notice how excited Amoury was to see his beloved Nuttie arrive back to his arms. He was like a little kangaroo, skipping out to meet her.

 

[Pekey]

Wonder what promos Dame Fanny has lined up for the Black Friday superstore sale?

And what has Black Nailed Boyfriend have his eye on too !!!
He loves shopping!

 

[Gertrude Maud]

I travelled on the Indian Pacific train from Perth to Sydney, well not all the way. We had driven from Sydney to Melbourne and then on the Empress to Tasmania for our wedding in 1975. Then we drove to Perth for the honeymoon. This was before the road from Ceduna to Perth was sealed all the way. I hated the idea of driving back to Sydney the same way so convinced hubby to drive to Kalgoorlie and put the car on the train and travel the rest of the way to Port Pirie in Sth Australia. It was a magical journey. Waking up in the morning with breakfast in bed and a view of the Nullarbor Plain and huge kangaroos bounding alongside the train. Nullarbor means 'no trees' and that's what it is...flat scrub and the longest straight train track in the world. I have always enjoyed train travel. My greatest wish is to do 'the Gahn' as well as the Orient Express but fear time is running out..

I have a friend who has just returned from Japan. He is 82.
I have another friend currently holidaying in Italy, who would be about 84.

She has a partner who is around thirty years younger than her.
So Stephanie, you think your age difference is so special. Well it's not.

If 'the Ghan' is one of your greatest wishes go for it.
Life is to be lived, right to the end.

 

[Freesia54]

Brenda really dressed up for the dinner at shitto: sweatpants and crocs, wow!

View attachment 1751084
"Anyone who wears sweatpants has lost control of their life."

She was probably freezing

 

[MRShavershamsdress]

She can't cover her ass from the insurance trolls, though. If an event was to happen (not unheard of at Lalande) and she saw fit to claim, if it had anything to do with the fires, the chimneys etc and her policy states she must have them swept professionally on a yearly basis (which most home insurance policies do) she will have to produce documentation proving said sweepings have occurred. If an insurance policy of any kind is in place, it is actually most likely invalidated already, as I can think of several standard clauses that she simply is not compliant with - safe and up to date electrics being one.

She can lie to her audience, but a loss adjuster would smell this from a mile away and insurance won't pay anything.

By all that’s unholy, can you just imagine the howling outrage from her fans if the insurance monsters denied her! Her underwriter would have to go into hiding! Poor pitiful princess, taken advantage of again! How could the big meanies do that to her! I’m not sure which would be worse, the begging vlog that would follow or the smell of singed squirrel!

 

[Beachgirl]

Perhaps it is more clever than we think. For years she squawks about "Daddy's Paintings" so that everyone thinks she is attached to them. But she hates them.* And then there's a fire in the shitto and she complains that her beloved deceased father's masterpieces have been burnt. Wouldn't that be some kind of cover ?
*Clara, by the way, said that before YT she didn't care much about the pieces and in the old videos you can also see them standing on the floor in the hallway, unframed....

Very clever, not thought of that

 

[KiKiGee]

Donna Stevenson
8 hours ago
How is it 3 burners going through heat the whole chateau?

Donna Stevenson
8 hours ago
How is 2 chimney’s going to heat that entire place

 

[Gertrude Maud]

Very clever, not thought of that

If they were left standing unframed in the hallway I think she now uses them as a means to an end.
A ploy used to tug at the heartstrings of her grannies.

 

[On Repeat]

I travelled on the Indian Pacific train from Perth to Sydney, well not all the way. We had driven from Sydney to Melbourne and then on the Empress to Tasmania for our wedding in 1975. Then we drove to Perth for the honeymoon. This was before the road from Ceduna to Perth was sealed all the way. I hated the idea of driving back to Sydney the same way so convinced hubby to drive to Kalgoorlie and put the car on the train and travel the rest of the way to Port Pirie in Sth Australia. It was a magical journey. Waking up in the morning with breakfast in bed and a view of the Nullarbor Plain and huge kangaroos bounding alongside the train. Nullarbor means 'no trees' and that's what it is...flat scrub and the longest straight train track in the world. I have always enjoyed train travel. My greatest wish is to do 'the Gahn' as well as the Orient Express but fear time is running out..

Do the Ghan and I will wave to you and pick you up for a cuppa!

 

[C'est moi]

I travelled on the Indian Pacific train from Perth to Sydney, well not all the way. We had driven from Sydney to Melbourne and then on the Empress to Tasmania for our wedding in 1975. Then we drove to Perth for the honeymoon. This was before the road from Ceduna to Perth was sealed all the way. I hated the idea of driving back to Sydney the same way so convinced hubby to drive to Kalgoorlie and put the car on the train and travel the rest of the way to Port Pirie in Sth Australia. It was a magical journey. Waking up in the morning with breakfast in bed and a view of the Nullarbor Plain and huge kangaroos bounding alongside the train. Nullarbor means 'no trees' and that's what it is...flat scrub and the longest straight train track in the world. I have always enjoyed train travel. My greatest wish is to do 'the Gahn' as well as the Orient Express but fear time is running out..

That sounds fabulous. I have always fancied the Orient Express, in full dress up mode. I love slow travel and have decided that since covid if I don't have to get on a plane I won't. I quite enjoy driving, in daylight hours, and my husband won't fly. So happily we are getting back to the way we used to do holidays and trips, taking several days to get to our destination with lovely stop offs on the way.

 

[LadyRed]

If I don't show up at work, I don't get paid. I can’t work less for the same salary. I was offered 75%, I declined since my salary would be reduced. I understand this; why don't they? Less content means less money, surely? Are people stupid? My students did their national test in English. Everyone who took the test today, passed. And I’m exhausted.

I don't know where you live but I assume wherever that is you don't get statutory sick pay? Or are self-employed?
Of course, sick pay doesn't apply if you just simply decide not to show up, and are not incapacitated due to being sick.

Chateau Unwrapped!1 hour ago
Hello lovely people! As we’re preparing for Advent, we’ve had to film Cadeaux on the day! Philip is starting to edit the video now, so it probably will not be out at the regular 9:15PM (French time). Please make sure you’ve hit the notification bell, so you’ll be notified as soon as tonight’s and future Cadeaux videos premiere!
Show less

! time warp alert! Lies alert!!

Can they do even a ounce of work these lazy people!!

Sigh, how hard is it to edit Crapeaux? No background music, no change in setting, no overlays, no cut scenes - NOTHING! Just, what I imagine to be, a couple of hours of footage to be quickly snipped and then rendered and uploaded, with the last 2 requiring no work but just waiting. That's all.
Fanny, I could do that alongside my full time job and it would still be out on the day, what is wrong with your manchild?

 

[JackSpratt]

Are we to assume that the geothermal system downstairs has still not been fixed? So they literally have no source of heating whatsoever?
Jesus Christ, Fanny! Even cavemen were able to light a fire at the end of the day.

What she has there at the moment has never been sufficient/installed correctly from day one. I seem to remember that when Nathan did his first visit she was shocked about just how much he's told her she needs with regards boilers radiators etc. She then tries to blame the initial people who put the heating in (didn't darling Daddy have some input too, him being neither a plumber or heating engineer), when in reality I suspect they thought they knew better and didn't want to spend the money as so many do. We've already seen not thick enough insulation on the exterior walls, the list goes on.

 

[Summerbaby]

Many old houses have chimney construction issues where a timber may actually traverse the flue as it ascends through the house. This can be there for donkeys years without any issue but a chimney fire can change that instantly. A stately house called Powerscourt had a chimney fire in 1974, the fire brigade thought it was out but a timber up in the chimney was still smouldering and it took off again in the small hours destroying the house. It was many years later and ownership had changed from Lord Powerscourt's family to Slazenger (sports brand) family before some restoration work was done. Not back to how it was, now shops, cafe and main ballroom is wedding venue. The formal gardens are in top 10 in the world.

As I wrote this I recalled how it looked so similar to state of Dan's chateau, perhaps he has Nike or Adidas sponsoring the works.

If DTM had actually learnt anything from being on the side-lines of the Chateauverse community during the past few years, he would have fully comprehended that he defo needs a financial backer, wouldn't he? As in, financial shareholders with him being the major shareholder! Or, at the very least aiming to get the local Mayor and the historical society behind him in an attempt to raise awareness/money - outside of his predictable, "new" upcoming, in the pipeline, Patreon account, obviously!

As another member here stated recently, sorry can't remember who. I too feel that his crazy fixation/addiction to this particular chateau, may have been the cause of him and Annalise parting ways. Parental responsibility springs to my mind.

I find it rather strange that his channel is still called ETRF when in actual fact he is not now escaping - he's way beyond that stage. Present day, he is 100% entrenched in rural France and not featuring Annalise or his 2 boys.

All bets are on as to how long it will be before Annalise and the boys will actually be included in his vlogs again? 1/2/3 or 4 weeks?

Annalise hasn't been seen at the HMN doing SJ's or, anybody else's hair for ages now either! I hope her and the boys are doing well.

DTM's recent window vlog was just so utterly boring!

 

[LadyRed]

While we're at the subject of heating and stoves, I grew up with one of these guys:

They were wood burners or wood/gas burners combo. All made of terracotta. Even had a gas one installed in an apartment, before my parents could afford installing central heating. 8 year old me had to check it periodically to make sure I wasn't going to be blown up to smithereens by the gas as the flame could be blown out if there were strong winds outside Growing up in the ex Soviet block was wild.

My grandma's house still has one of these bad boys:

It provided heat and she cooked on it. A lot of people in the rural parts still use them, some don't have modern cookers. I remember my grandma and mum cooking all kinds of wonders on these and grandma would throw a bunch of orange peels on the stove around Christmas time and that would get the entire place smelling of orange and Christmas.

In saying that, I would never trade in my central heating and cooker for this (not while I can afford them).
I've had enough living in cold houses and heating water on the stove to wash in a basin to last me a lifetime.

What she has there at the moment has never been sufficient/installed correctly from day one. I seem to remember that when Nathan did his first visit she was shocked about just how much he's told her she needs with regards boilers radiators etc. She then tries to blame the initial people who put the heating in (didn't darling Daddy have some input too, him being neither a plumber or heating engineer), when in reality I suspect they thought they knew better and didn't want to spend the money as so many do. We've already seen not thick enough insulation on the exterior walls, the list goes on.

Ah yes, I am aware of this, but even insufficient as it is, at least the system could provide heat to some of the downstairs rooms. But last we heard of it, it wasn't turning on due to some leaks. Are we to assume this never got fixed and the heap is quite literally not heated at all at the moment with the exception of an electric blanket and a bunch of portable heaters which keep tripping the electric?

Fanny also had a separate video where she and Armoire were going over the radiators in all of the rooms and the conclusion was that they were nowhere near sufficient for the size of the place. However, when she and Armoire were discussing this once again a couple of months ago in a video where they were by the new garden, Fanny outright refused to allocate the necessary money for this project. Armoire even made some good recommendations, saying she doesn't have to do it all at once if she's worried about the financials (he thought something as high as 300K was required), but that she should do it right once and for all.

 

[Just Grift Wood]

I am baffled why I still watch Fanny and Phi as I think in reality I would struggle to spend an evening with them-their lives are so insular

I don't know where you live but I assume wherever that is you don't get statutory sick pay? Or are self-employed?
Of course, sick pay doesn't apply if you just simply decide not to show up, and are not incapacitated due to being sick.



Sigh, how hard is it to edit Crapeaux? No background music, no change in setting, no overlays, no cut scenes - NOTHING! Just, what I imagine to be, a couple of hours of footage to be quickly snipped and then rendered and uploaded, with the last 2 requiring no work but just waiting. That's all.
Fanny, I could do that alongside my full time job and it would still be out on the day, what is wrong with your manchild?

It is just as well they don't work in the real world because they would be sacked. Everyone has to be able to work to a deadline, it is clear that work on advent should be slotted in around their regular commitments. As they seem incapable of delivering on a weekly basis it shows Fanny doesn't have the time for her Grand Tour channel . Focus Fanny for the love of God-if the little gobshite can't even edit a crappy grabeaux which is his only task get rid of him and get someone who can.

 

[Summerbaby]

Apologies in advance as I am not up to date with all comments here at the mo.
But, just have to ask for my sanity's sake, who was the French guy featured in Sunday's vlog? Nathan's side-kick or the HMN's new handyman?
Is he Angel who many have previously referred to, or is Angel, someone else?
Whatever, the guy seemed to know what he was talking about with regard to chimney sweeping - as I am sure that that potato trick will work perfectly.
AND, am I correct in noticing that Nathan actually speaks French??
I do recollect that whatever Nathan does in France in connection with anything plumbing/heating-wise has to be finally signed off by a fully qualified French professional in that field. Have I got that correct @JackSpratt?

 

[LadyRed]

The whole point of the Grand Trash channel was that Fanny was advised to have separate channels by her YouTube advisor as to increase her reach and income across her content. If you decrease the amount of content, you're defeating the whole point of this business decision. Of course, Fanny doesn't care too much about this since she has £30,000+/month outside of YT paying for, uhm, restoration.

And then what's the point of paying for a bumboy editor, if said content is subpar and always late? Fanny is better off editing herself and not keeping her toy on a salary or paying a professional editor who will actually be much more efficient and deliver on deadlines.

 

[KyBourbon]

View attachment 1751069

Donna Stevenson
8 hours ago
How is it 3 burners going through heat the whole chateau?

Donna Stevenson
8 hours ago
How is 2 chimney’s going to heat that entire place

View attachment 1751108

It’s as if we see the scales fall from their eyes in real time! So lovely to watch!