I have been watching this channel from almost the very beginning but I was too hesitant to ever comment but I finally just have to say it was so strange you had two ducks for the first time in your pond because we have lived at our house for 30 years and 2 days ago, 2 ducks that looked identical to your ducks were just chilling in our pool. It was a childhood dream of mine to someday see some ducks in there, and it finally happened! Talk about strange coincidences! My sister called me out to see them, and we also were too hesitant to get too close so they wouldn’t fly away! Thank you for these wonderful weekly videos Abby that have become a staple in our house and thank you for sharing these lovely ducks! ❤ 🦆 ❤
We had a pair of Mallards who used to make our pool in California their home over winter each year. They will get used to you. Just talk quietly to them and do things outside around them. They will see that you aren't going to do them any harm. One year, we were blessed that the mother Mallard had ducklings out in our front yard between our home and the neighbors! Sooo sweet!! We never even knew she was nesting in these big bushes. Enjoy your ducks!
We were in Bordeaux for our xray January 10 and our CDS is done! Just waiting for it to ready to pick up at the Pau Prefecture!!! You are on another step to be closer to - Year 1 Complete!
My suggestion-TAKE PICTURES OF EVERYTHING!!! The keep a photo file of “Underground Conduits for the Chateau” With dates and when upgrades were added. You will be so glad you did down the road.
Chloe is such a busybody. The noise and all the activity doesn’t seem to bother her. ❤ What was her response to the ducks? I believe she is Thomas’s shadow? Your chateau is looking beautiful. You are such a hard worker and it’s starting to show
Hi Abbie, I think you're amazing! You never seem to stop and you somehow manage to plough through all the challenges that are thrown at you. You're truely an inspiration to many, especially women, and you're doing this all on your own! You found a gem when you found Thomas. Your place is coming along beautifully! Is Bruce coming back? Hope you have a great week and thanks for sharing. ❤Zeljka
Abby, I expect that you find all the work required in the chateau overwhelming sometimes, but it’s amazing how much you’ve already accomplished. Interiors, exterior, cottage, gardens, rock wall, fountain, heating, electrics, water blockages, all getting addressed & improved. I’m finding it very impressive. Well done. Thanks for sharing 😘🤗🇨🇦
Bonjour Abby! Great news about the fibre lines! It’s been a lot of time and work, but successful in the long run. The once green/yellow room is well on its way to completion. I look forward to seeing the finished product, and have enjoyed seeing all the ongoing work. A la prochaine!
I have been watching the château people for a number of years. You have undertaken a massive project. The château were built so many years ago that updating them so that they are able to be heated, energy, efficient, and compatible is a massive job. The sweat equity involved And the financial load are both incredible to me. I hope you are enjoying your endeavor and that you get to enjoy it for many years. I had a small apartment in a old farmhouse in Tuscany in the middle of a wine estate. It was a fixed project in which the builder, all that was needed and we just had to furnish and do the garden. It was only 65 m² of house and 100 m² of garden. That is all I felt I could take on.
I know this undertaking must be so hard on your own, all decisions are yours alone, that takes courage to do & you'll reap the benefits & have a beautiful Chateau that you'll watch your kids & future grandkids enjoy & love as much as you do! Be proud of yourself Abbie, I'm sure your family admire your tenacity & love you for it! Love from Australia. 🇦🇺 ❤️
Hi Abby, Everything looks fantastic. Your hard work really show and the love your putting into the Château. My daughter and I are planning to do the retreat 2025!🤞Continue success.
I have been watching this channel from the very beginning. I love your channel, but I am to lazy to comment because I’m watching RU-vid on my TV and I have to grab my phone to wrote a comment. 😉 All painting retreats that I have come across are for those with experience. Would very much like to participate in one for beginners. Photography retreat - one for beginners and one for advanced students A retreat with a floral designer. I would love a brocante and antique retreat. A cooking retreat would be fun.
I love love love your videos . I love you for taking a chance and moving to France , I'm sure it is so amazing to join a retreat . I think what your doing is incredible and you've come so far ! Abby your a beautiful woman /person .
The ducks in your pond are Mallard ducks and are a mated pair. The male mallard is so handsome with his glistening green neck feathers. Two years ago we heard duck sounds coming from our yard, stepped out on the patio to see two Mallard duck couples in our nearly empty pool (we'd drained it for winter, but rain water had filled it with a few feet of water). They spent a few days with us before going on their mysterious way.
Hi Abbie, things are always moving along at your place. I Love Love Love the colors you picked for the old green/yellow room. Can’t wait to see it all together! You just seem so right there. Happy to see you happy❤❤❤
Super vlog. Love when you film places that I'll never be able to visit. The architecture, grand squares, little side streets, and shop windows are so interesting. Pleased to see the progress in the grounds and chateau. Good internet connectivity will make such a difference for you.
I've enjoyed watching you fix up your property. I think you have way more energy and impatience than I do. If I bought something it would have to be ready to live in. Although, we wouldn't have this fun channel to watch and get to know you as you navigate the challenges! The gardener was so cute primping for your video! It gave me a chuckle. I am so excited about the 2025 schedule. I hope it comes out soon so I can book something ASAP before the rest of my travel for that year. I would like a watercolor class.
Abby you're awesome...I know how neck-breaking painting overhead on Ceilings is...ugh! Just so beautiful it will be. If I could do a Brocante retreat and food and wineries, I'm totally down for that! Thanks for sharing your accomplishments, again, so impressed with your determination!
The vibe of your luscious property, tucked into the land, landscape and stone is magical and I can feel it from here! I'm so enjoying watching your progress every week! Whenever we put our love and attention into anything... it begins to sing with light and love right back to us! You are really putting your heart and Soul into this exquisite place. It's really coming alive! Good. For. You!!!!!
You are doing an amazing job on this chateau!! it is wonderful to see the cottage with its new roof and now run off all taken care of. You must feel so much better about that! It is so nice to see the yellow and green gone from your office area. Your new colours sound beautiful and can't wait to see the finished product. You decorate so beautifully! So happy that you are getting new cable as it will make your life so much easier. Thank you for taking us on this journey with you. 🇨🇦
So happy to see those green and yellowish color away... :) Your new colors (ceiling and o'gee) look fabulous and go so well for that room. Beautiful! Very classic. Love them!
The best advise I received from a designer concerning the final choice of color is: 1. choose the color for your decor 2. test it on the walls for few days (to see it in the sun, natural light, and evening) 3. then you take the final shade under the tone you love at first. This rule is perfect. I always do this now and I can tell you, you are not going to be desapointed. We usually tend to take the shade who is too dark for our room. Bon succès!
Fibre internet great I have it too at my cottage it's way faster then the satellite internet I have at the farm which can drive u crazy some days love it it when u get it . ❤ Bordeaux just such a gorgeous City a must do . The yellow and green room is no more and I have to say I bet u do not miss it . Colours look good . ❤🐾🐾🏰🏰🐿 Chloe u looking well ❤
I think it is terrific you were able to get the fibre straightened out. Loved the ducks and really like the paint colors for the bedroom. Onward to the next steps. ❤
Wonderful work on the office painting and fiber trench! Exciting to hear that you are already planning for next year! Love Chloe's cameos! Bordeaux looked lovely.
I don’t know if you sew, but a sewing retreat would be amazing. Or one that focuses on the brocante and markets where you would find interesting vintage fabrics. A small project could be planned where it’s either hand sewing (the trendy term now is slow stitching, mindful mending, slow sew, or something like that). You could also have many people working on one large project for one or two weeks and the final is a quilt that is displayed in the Chateau. I’d also be interested in things like French embroidery workshops, tapestry history and workshops. Or sourcing French linens. I was at a vintage market in London today (I live in west London) and a woman who owns one of the stalls had a ton of vintage French textiles for sale. She also had cute little bundles of what I would call a project bag where there were curated cuts of fabric, laces, and other haberdashery that you could get inspiration from and make a small project with.
please rennovate and use the existing mountine caves,and maintain a mape book for your property for electricity, water,internet cable ways for avoiding confusion of future .thank you
"More water, go figure" 😂 I truly feel your pain! That is so cool you ran into a subscriber! One of many more to come I'm sure! If I could afford flying to France I would love any of your workshops. So far they seem like they create friends for life and that says a lot about you. ❤❤ ❤
Another week of progress!! Happy to hear good news and hope that the clean up is beneficial for when the rain comes it sounds like you are getting a good handle on what is needed now just all the work ahead but at least at last piece of mind that once all is completed you should be fine without further trouble from the cliff! Excited to see the room completed too! So many ideas for retreats from culinary to all types of art a vineyard retreat…that would be booked immediately 😂all joking aside you do have a vast amount of different retreats that could be amazing! Au Revoir 💜
I wonder... Can you add a drain pipe down the sides of the little cottage built up against the stone rockface? That might help with drainage better. Just a thought. Also, is the wood lintel on the right side (facing) the cottage rotted?? I was thinking you might have to have a new one carved and put in. Still a lot of work to do on the cottage, huh? Homes are always a work in progress. :) Love seeing all the changes!!! Was this a caretaker's cottage at one time? Or somewhere the servants lived? Just wondering. Thank you for sharing your chateau with us. 💖 Great news about the piping being in the ground already! We did that when we put in our pool at our last home. Was a great way to have open piping available for any future projects. Love the huge rosette medallion on the ceiling in the room you are painting! The colors are beautiful... sigh! 💞 Sorry you ran out of paint. I spent most of 2023 painting our 2200 sq. ft. house by myself, including ceilings. Love painting! For me it's very relaxing. Hope it is for you, too!! Have a great week!!! Hugs, Barb
Love your painting music it’s great! The ceiling looks so much warmer with color on it instead of white. Little by little your finding all the secrets of your château. Electricity today fiber optics tomorrow. 🤷🏽♂️ You just never know in France. Thank you Abbie
I was thinking today where is Abby? i was watching Chateau Diaries and all of a sudden i remembered seeing you on there, which made me wonder where are you??? after i had finished watching Stephanie and Phillips visit to see Anna and Philip, i went back to the beginning of today`s video`s and there you were with the adorable Chloe. Im so happy you are getting fibre it is such a game changer, i dont know how i managed without it The paint tones you have chosen are just perfect but i do like the dark tone best of all, i must admit that i was hoping you were going to paint the whole room in the dark color like you showed us in that magazine a couple of video`s back, being such a large room it could take that shade. Happy painting cant wait to see the finish
I put some bird seed down on my lawn each day wich ensures the Ducks woddle around for lunch each day ❤ you got lots of painting done, it's no joke painting out a Château ❤ things are coming together with Internet, electrics, gardening and getting things cleared out. Good luck with the retreat have fun. 👋 😊
I thoroughly enjoy this journey! Thank you for sharing. It is wonderfiul to see progress as it happens with very realistic challenges and the way you deal with them. Nothing happens over night and it all takes time, diligence and planning. A learning process for sure! You asked for suggestions for retreats. I am not sure if you have this, but how about something as easy as wine and food? Throwing in cooking as an addition to the food? I wish you continued success!!
Glad you do not have TB. Funny that after months here, the X-ray is required. Wasn’t the psychological questionnaire fun?! Anyway. Great progress on cable conduits. Hope you get fiber soon. Anything more on the written driving test?
Love all the projects going on, and some finished. How's the bedroom coming along? Chloe is so sweet, happy she overcame her health scare. Who knows one year I might book a retreat, I am not an artist but am interested in an introduction to painting either oil or acrylic . So, happy the wires were found... Isn't there a device that can read where the lines travel underground? I see city road workers use something . Glad Tomas found the end 🤗
Nice train ride to Bordeaux. Lots happening at the Chateau. Thanks for the update. So cool they had systems in place , but not maintained. Nevermind, you’re getting there and exciting to know fibres going in. Yay! You got recognised amazing
What a big job. I am always impressed. I think you would find me in the south of France taking a rest.Glad you got some good news. A French cooking retreat would be popular I think.
Thank you for your vlog and for introducing me to Babbel. I was subscribed since 9/2023 and right now on Course 6 ( Past participle ) of French lessons for beginners. Halfway through, I changed my subscription to ALL languages and simultaneously learning Italian in anticipation for a wedding and side trip to Italy this summer. French language difficulties are in the pronunciation and verbs . I alternate French and Italian (easier) every other week. Anyway, I just discovered that retirement is NOT really resting .. there's a lot more learning. Enjoying my love of early period renovation and architectural history through your site. Hoping to join you in one of your retreats one of these days. Have plans of river cruising in South of France in a couple of years . Maybe able to time it with that. (fingers crossed )
I do not mean to intruding but I think that you make a Map for all the discovering you are doing in the Chateau. This way it will be a good guides for the future.
The cottage and fountain are looking beautiful. And Tomas is indispensable! So nice that he is so capable. We should all have someone like him…How did you find him?
He is a friend of Isabelle (my friend who comes with the Afgan refugees). Isabelle used to be a neighbor and caregiver to Thomas' grandmother. They are both gems. I feel so lucky to know them both! 😍
Abby, GREAT job on painting that ceiling. That's hard work overhead!! You are such a dynamo of effort! I do wish I could come to a retreat someday; I know I'd love it. Everything's looking so good!
I started watching your story about a month ago, I think what you have done is awesome, I love old architecture, antiques and the history. I am wanting to attend one of your workshops and have looked at the sketching workshop for this Sept., but I have encountered a small hurdle; so if not this one I am definitely putting one on my list. A mated pair of Mallards would be cool to have around. 🙂
You can locate your Underground Internet Point of Presence (POP) with a metal detector deep trace head. Make sure to mark the entire line on your Plot Plan for future reference. ❤️🙏
Exciting discoveries this week thanks for sharing lots of great work done Abby and more plans already into 2025 your visions are coming to life mine not so much work getting in the way events at the Yacht club taking away from getting the family room done Home depot delivery Friday during a snow storm so put the beadboard in the garage and furring strips and trim in the garage suppose to be plus 12 on Monday so get the stuff into the house and dry out mind you garage is pretty dry no real damp problems! Cannot wait my friend from the sarnia yacht club helping me it on the ceiling 4 by4 squares will be fun but have to spring clean the club in between first wedding in April ! Tired before get started keep forgetting Iam 69 not 29 lol ! Nice to see things greening up daffodils flowering in snow today ! Will be green by Monday afternoon ! Cannot wait to see your bedroom come together! Thanks for letting me run on as you know when we are on our own all the time I need Tomas! Love your music choices this week love the old stuff Joe and played nothing but 50s 60s and 70s! 😀😍
