Two Californians Renovate A French Chateau In HGTV’s Best Show Yet

Part of getting older is slowly turning into your parents, and for a lot of us in our 30s, that means starting to watch HGTV. But one significant generational gap remains consistent—we are having a much harder time becoming home owners they did. So in many ways, a channel that was once considered a pinnacle of reality TV, has become our favorite escapist fantasy, and there is no better example than their newest series, Castle Impossible.

Perfect for your bedtime routine (save the award-winning, anxiety-inducing fare for a different occasion)—this show has all of the down-to-earth-ness and chemistry of Chip and Joanna Gaines, with one very crucial Cinderella spin.

American expat couple, Daphne Reckert and Ian Figueira, relocated to France to renovate the 500-year-old chateau that Daphne inherited from her late grandfather, in a premise that literally feels like a modern fairy tale, but is also so grounded in reality that it draws you in and keeps you hooked.

Reckert is no princess or Paris Hilton. Her grandfather, who had no formal education, put together his life savings to buy the chateau in the 1980s, and she grew up spending summers on the property, with the expectation that French inheritance tax would render keeping it in the family long-term an impossibility.

She and Figueira both went to high school together in California, but didn’t begin dating until they were in their twenties. She studied Conservation Resource Studies and he joined the Air Force. Relocating to France was not part of their plan until Reckert’s grandparents asked to her join them to help stabilize the chateau’s wedding and filming business as her grandfather’s Alzheimer’s worsened.

Reckert and Figueira were married the same year Reckert’s grandfather passed, and the two made the decision to relocate permanently to the property, roughly 30 minutes outside of Paris, taking on enormous risk and a $1 million tax bill they could not afford. They drastically increased the number of wedding bookings to raise money, and got to work on the renovating the chateau with the help of a British contractor named Tony, and doing as much hands on work as possible themselves.

Each episode showcases a different room or project they are working on, as well as the challenges that limited budget and unknown costs and urgent repairs present. While there are an abundance of glamorous and romantic moments, including beautiful aerial shots of the property and expeditions into the dungeon, the sheer size and difficulty of the project they have taken on is commendable.

One moment a structural flaw threatens to tear down an entire section of the chateau—the next they are sweeping up piles of dead flies or trimming weeds that could destroy the moat. It’s the perfect dose of conflict and resolution (albeit likely staged and scripted) to help you wind down before bed. The first season just wrapped up, and our fingers are crossed it gets picked up for a second. Luckily for us, the chateau has plenty more rooms in need of redecorating.