Is buying a chateau in France really worth it? The good, the bad and the ugly truth, with GoGo Chateau’s Morgan Lawley
Episode 20, season 1
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Morgan Lawley swapped a career directing TV commercials and music videos in Los Angeles for a chateau renovation project in rural France. She documents the whole thing publicly on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok under the name GoGo Chateau: the highs, the lows, the septic tank disasters and the tractor dancing. She’s funny, she’s honest, and she pulls absolutely no punches about what chateau life is actually like.
Rosie and Sue sat down with Morgan to hear the real story - from the moment she committed to the dream, to falling through a rotten stable floor with a camera in her hand.
Q&A with Morgan Lawley
What sparked the move to France - and the chateau dream specifically?
It’s definitely not something you do on a whim. This was a calculated, decades-long dream - a princess fairy tale chateau fantasy I’ve had since I was a little girl. After COVID, everything slotted into place. I’d been watching all these shows about chateau renovation - mostly Brits doing it - and for the first time I thought, okay, now there’s a roadmap. I can see how it’s done. My daughter was graduating from high school and I thought, if I don’t do this now, I’ll always regret it. When you have a big dream, you’ve got to take a swing.
You had quite a career before all this. Can you tell us about it?
I started dancing at seven, moved to Los Angeles and became an LA Laker girl - Paula Abdul was choreographing for the Lakers at the time, and she was just starting to work with the Jacksons. I ended up being in Janet Jackson’s What Have You Done for Me Lately video, and from there I was in the Dirty Dancing tour - I got to do ‘the lift’ - and danced at the Oscars. Then I transitioned to producing and directing music videos. My first nomination was for Diggable Planets, then I directed for What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes, Darryl Hall, Jamiroquai. After that I went into commercials, set design, event design, real estate. Home was always my canvas to express myself. And then, logically, a chateau.
What did your friends and family think?
Most people had heard me talk about this for so long that they thought I was full of it. When I actually did it, they were shocked - but not surprised. My daughter was the only one whose opinion I really cared about. Everyone else I’d figure out later.
What were the biggest culture shocks when you arrived?
I kept being told everything goes slowly here and I kept thinking, yeah, they haven’t met me yet. I was delusional about that. I love that everyone takes a two-hour lunch until you’re trying to get something done, and then you want to pull your hair out. The scheduling is relentless. And then there’s the phone call thing. I can’t speak French - it’s still not getting better, honestly - and everything here seems to require a phone call. I need things in writing so I can translate them. The admin is hardcore.
And the isolation. I chose a very rural area. Everyone told me not to. I did it anyway. And they were right. I’m an extroverted introvert - I like solitude - but not having restaurants nearby, having to plan food far in advance, remembering that this shop is closed on that day and that one doesn’t open until this time… it’s a lot.
How did you find the chateau itself?
I’d been actively looking for almost four years and made two trips to France, around eighteen weeks total, just driving around trying to feel my way to where. I’d narrowed it down to within a hundred kilometres of Angers because I loved it - it’s like a mini Paris and it has everything you need, including a Zara. But I couldn’t find what I was looking for and I nearly gave up. So my daughter and I went to Italy to see if maybe that was where I was supposed to be instead, and at the airport my buyer’s representative, Ben Denning, sent me this listing. It was everything on my list, at the price point I was looking at. But it was a feeding frenzy - nine visits a day. We put a full price offer in immediately. I hadn’t even stepped foot in it; Ben had visited on my behalf. I was in Italy. I said go get it.
The things the chateau didn’t tick - I wanted a chapel, for instance - have come to me in other ways. It turns out there’s a chapel on my farmer neighbour’s land, built by the man who built my chateau, Henri Latour. He’s entombed there. And my spirit animal - a turtle - is emblazoned on the front of it. One story after another like that. I feel very much that Henri chose me to bring this place back.
What’s the reality of chateau renovation versus the YouTube dream?
I think it could align if you were a DIY person. I am absolutely not a DIY person. I have other skills. But I’m learning - taking shutters down, sanding, painting - because some of those things will save me a significant amount of money if I can do them myself. What I wasn’t prepared for was just how slow it would all go, and how much of my time and energy would be spent just finding the right people. By the time I arrived I was so depleted from uprooting my entire life that I barely got out of bed for two or three months. I was exhausted and scared. What have I done? I still think that almost every day, actually.
Did you go in with a renovation budget?
A logical person or a real investor would have done it that way. For me this wasn’t primarily a real estate acquisition - it’s the backdrop for everything else I want to do with my life. Events, media, set design, photography, creating worlds for people. There’s still a very real financial aspect to it and it’s terrifying, but there was no way to know what it was really going to cost until I had solid relationships with people on the ground. Every artisan, every vendor - you’re testing them out, trying to figure out if it’s going to work.
What’s been your biggest unexpected cost so far?
The septic tank. The original tank was in the basement - in the actual building, as strange as it sounds. There was visible waste seeping out of old pipes. When it rained, groundwater would push it back and the smell was terrible. I spent a year and a half trying to find people I could trust to sort it, because I also wanted to future-proof it - if I eventually turn the attic into accommodation, I need a system that can handle a full house. The pipe runs 135 metres to the gatehouse at the entrance to the property. It tore up the entire front park. The lawn is only now coming back. And it cost around $60,000 - and that’s just the external part. The internal plumbing connecting everything is still to come.
See also: Episode #19 - Business costs and hidden expenses
How are you heating the place?
Slowly and expensively. I went round in circles on this for a long time. Geothermal - that’s around €150,000, so immediately no. Aerothermal - it’s complicated, you need panels, and nobody could give me a clear answer on whether it would even work given the structure. Right now I have an old radiator boiler system running on diesel, but the boilers are ancient and I probably have a leak in the underground fuel tank. I’ve brought three fireplaces back out of eight, which is wonderful for ambiance and almost useless for heating - but they’re huge beautiful marble fireplaces and I love them. The most sensible advice I’ve had so far is to replace the old boilers with a more efficient modern system and just burn fuel better. That could save around 50%. The other thing I really need is proper heavy draperies throughout. These high-ceilinged stone rooms retain cold in winter.
How have you found tradespeople?
It’s been one of the hardest things. Facebook has been something of a cesspool, frankly - there are very unkind people in those groups. Mostly it’s been word of mouth: one person introduces me to another person, who introduces me to someone else, often because something’s broken urgently and I just need to find somebody fast. I’ve asked other chateau owners, I’ve asked neighbours, I’ve used a list from the previous owner. You’re building a little black book gradually.
The other challenge is that in France trades are very specific - the electrician does electrics, the carpenter does carpentry, the plaquiste does walls, and they don’t step outside of that. What [Rosie and Sue’s] companies do - being multi-trade, being able to coordinate everything and hold it all together - is rare and genuinely necessary, but there aren’t many of them.
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Why did you decide to document the project publicly?
My background is in film and television, so it made sense to use those skills. There’s a real niche for chateau renovation content on YouTube and I thought the media piece would be the low-hanging fruit, the quick income generator. It isn’t, really - not until you have hundreds of thousands of followers. YouTube doesn’t pay much without serious volume, and building that audience takes time. I’m growing but it’s not overnight. The longer game is that once you hit a certain reach, sponsors start coming to you, and being a commercial director for thirty years means I understand that world really well. But it’s also about sharing the reality of what this is. Both things are true.
What are the downsides of doing it publicly?
People can be mean. At first it really affected me. It wasn’t the criticism - I’ve had plenty of that over a thirty-year career - it was more the state of the world that produces that kind of behaviour and normalises it. People writing nastiness into the void, not brave enough to say any of it to someone’s face. I’ve now put strong language filters in place, which might be one reason my growth is a little slower - if something even smells negative, it doesn’t get through. I spent sixty hours editing a video once. I can’t have someone tank that with a few nasty words. Stephanie Jarvis of Chateau Diaries talks about being thick-skinned about this and I’m working on it. I want to clap back, which I know is exactly the wrong instinct. I’m getting better at letting it go.
What’s been your funniest moment on camera?
I was up in the stables filming Vince, my handyman. There’s a lot of debris and dirt, and you’re not always sure where you’re stepping - and I asked Vince whether the floor was safe. He said, ‘Oh, yes’. My right leg went straight through it. Luckily, I had the sense to spin the camera around and catch my own reaction!
Has the project changed you as a person?
It’s aged me. I’m joking, but not entirely. My self-care routine is basically non-existent right now. I have two-inch roots permanently. I sleep in the dining room. I brush my teeth at the kitchen sink. My arthritis is getting worse. My energy isn’t what it used to be and I wasn’t really prepared for that. In LA I’d be doing Pilates, getting facials, shopping at Whole Foods. Here I found someone to do my nails and I was genuinely thrilled. But I think there’s something healthy about caring less about how you look on camera. If I only filmed myself when I looked good, I’d never film anything - because I’m working from dawn to midnight, I’m filthy, it rains constantly, and there are flies and hornets and bird mess everywhere. It is not glamorous at all.
And your one piece of advice for anyone thinking about doing something similar?
Learn French. That genuinely is my first piece of advice. But also: know that this is a long game. You have to have stamina, and you have to protect your stamina. And choose your location carefully. If you need restaurants and services nearby to function happily - not as a nice-to-have but as an actual need - then get closer to them. Don’t do what I did and go completely rural because you fell in love with a property and then discover that isolation is harder to live with than you expected. Location, location, location - we’ve all said it, and it turns out it applies to châteaux too.
Connect with Morgan
YouTube: GoGo Chateau
Instagram: @gogo.chateau
TikTok: @gogochateau
Connect with us!
Email: frenchrenodiaries@gmail.com
Maison Bretagne (Rosie Ellis)
S.R. Charpenterie (Sue Peake-Russell)