So they bought after looting Churches:
Becoming chateau owners
One of the couples featured on the first series of Escape to the Chateau DIY became firm favourites with the viewing public. They were young and inexperienced but had huge commitment to bring back to life a neglected and enormous chateau.
Their willingness to do whatever it took, working night and day, impressed everyone. Billy Petherick from Greenwich in London was just 27 and his fiancé Gwendoline from Cherbourg, Normandy was 24 when they bought the Chateau de la Baismagnée. In the heart of the rural department of Mayenne in Pays de La Loire, it cost them €1,050,000 in 2016. Billy had some building experience, Gwendoline had worked in retail but nothing daunted them.
“When we decided to get a house in France, we knew we wanted to take on a project. Perhaps a grand house, manoir, maison de maître, or small château, but when we were looking online, we stumbled across a listing for a grand château” says Gwendoline. “We thought that even if it was bigger than what we were looking for, it was so beautiful that it was definitely worth a look, at least we could dream for an afternoon. But when we saw it, we fell in love with the place straight away. It made us re-think all our plans, because after seeing the Chateau de la Basmaignée we couldn’t really imagine ourselves being anywhere else. After months of figuring out a way to pursue this crazy adventure, we got the keys to our beautiful chateau”. Funding came from a legacy from Gwendoline’s late mother and bank loans.