Reading through these threads the past few days has been so cathartic! I discovered chateau vlogs early on in the pandemic and at the time it seemed like just what I needed - so glamorous! so interesting! so different from sitting in an apartment worrying whether I was going to get sick from going to the grocery store! - but I've been slowly losing interest in (and patience with) all of them. Apologies if this is all boring stuff that's been said before, I just wanted to get it off my chest lol.
Doing It Ourselves lost me first, after about five videos they fell flat for me. I don't like all the twee Beatrix Potter stuff, I was there for chateau renovations, and there was something insincere about Michael that made me feel like he was secretly rolling his eyes at the show he was putting on for his adoring fans who all seemed to think he was their sweet wholesome grandson.
CD took longer to get on my nerves, but somewhere around the Chateau Quiz patreon debacle I got really fed up with my fellow patrons, and then that started to extend to the vlog characters themselves. With nearly $30,000 a month coming in why is so little actual necessary work being done instead of vanity projects like making unnecessary apartments for people who are surely happy enough to stay in a nice bedroom in the main chateau? How much china and spare "just in case" furniture does one chateau need, when they just announced they were doing a massive spring clean that would supposedly clear the whole place out? Why was everyone pretending the unappealing curly-haired boytoy was there for anything except to cater to SJ's every whim? Why the big fuss about the boudoir renovation (yawn) and fake surprise that the new chandelier would *gasp* suit that room best? (Does it really, though? Isn't it just going to hang down and block the Wonderful Natural Light she was just trilling about when they knocked down the wall?) Why does she still have that neon pink tape up all around the edges of her bedroom? Don't people get tired of her swanning around filming them and talking over them while they do all the work on her Beautiful Home? Bleh. The whole thing just started to seem so odd and fake and pretentious that now I can barely keep watching.
The cadeaux videos were off-putting from the first, I think I only ever made it through one whole video. Most of the gifts are embarrassingly tacky, do people sending them really believe someone who lives in a chateau in France is actually that thrilled to be sent their TJ Maxx knockoffs?
But then you read the comments on the videos or on Facebook and...yes. Yes, they do believe they're contributing to the "elegant" decor of a historic home.
(Looking back now I should have run about five minutes after I joined the original Tale of Two Chateaux FB group...the woman running it was loopier than a bowl of froot loops and the sycophants discussing everything were even weirder)
Sorry for hijacking the discussion, thanks for letting me vent!
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Thanks for the laugh!!!!
