To the manor shornThe French are selling their châteaus for cheap. Americans are discovering why.
A California couple bought Chateau Avensac for $1.2 million — then discovered it needed another $1 million in updates.
Three years ago, when Mark Goff and Phillip Engel had their first viewing of Château Avensac in the south of France, only one thing prevented the California couple from putting in an offer: Was it old enough?
The gate tower, supporting walls, and stone bridge at the estate’s entrance date back to the original medieval castle built in 1320. But the main building — a 48-room château with sweeping views of the Gers, the rural, foie-gras-producing region of southwest France — was rebuilt in the 1820s. “The idea of the royals and the nobles, to us, is a very romantic idea,” Goff says. “That’s why we love ‘Bridgerton.'”
In the end, they decided there was “just enough 14th-century château stuff going on” to fulfill their fantasies and make it their new home. The place was certainly big enough to host weddings and artist retreats, a business the couple was counting on to help pay for the extensive renovations that would be required. By the fall of 2021, Château Avensac was theirs for $1.2 million.
That’s when reality set in.
Phillip Engel plans to launch an events business at his château — and is selling château merchandise to help cover the costs of renovation.
The château had exposed electrical wiring, “nonexistent” plumbing, and stone walls that retained moisture. Everywhere they looked, there was something in need of work. So far, they’ve spent $500,000 updating the château’s electricity, heat, and plumbing, fortifying the foundations, and replacing the roof. They’ve budgeted for $500,000 more. “Everyone said, ‘You have to assume everything is going to be double what you expect.’ And they were kind of right,” Engel says. “We didn’t really listen to that part.”
All across France, there’s a glut of châteaus for sale. While the average asking price is $2 million, smaller châteaus can go for a couple hundred thousand. A few, like the palatial mansion nicknamed the “Little Versailles of the Pyrenees,” are even being given away. But there’s a reason they’re on the market: The properties are huge money pits.
“You can buy a château in France for nothing,” says one real estate agent. “There’s a reason for that: because nobody wants them!”
Real estate agents say buyers should expect to set aside as much as 1.5% of the purchase price for annual maintenance, and significantly more if the château requires extensive renovations. And if the place is classified as a historic monument, as some 15,000 are, add to the process a small mountain of French bureaucracy. Plans require approval by the French minister of culture, and work must be done by designated specialists. In all of France, there are just 31 architects accredited to run these projects. What’s more, the places tend to be woefully outdated and incredibly isolated.
“It’s true, you can buy a château in France for nothing,” says Adrian Leeds, an American real estate agent who’s been in France for 30 years. “There’s a reason for that: because nobody wants them!”
That is, the French don’t want them. Americans very much do. “There was a razzia” — a plundering raid — “right after the pandemic,” says Gonzague Le Nail, a French real-estate agent who specializes in châteaus. Most of the interest used to come from foreign buyers in the market for a second home, but now, Le Nail says, it’s from families looking to relocate to the French countryside and use the château as their primary residence. Half the châteaus around Paris are foreign-owned, and inquiries from Americans are up across France.
The day they signed the deed of sale, Goff and Engel invited over all 74 residents of the town of Avensac and served them Champagne, impressing their new neighbors with the decidedly un-aristocratic sensibility they brought to their aristocratic new digs. A few months later, they hosted a “spooky Halloween” party. “They’re very open, very nice, and very low-key,” says Mayor Michel Tarrible, who’s been a recipient of the couple’s homemade cookies.
This was not Goff and Engel’s first time taking on an extreme fixer-upper. In 2009, they bought a place in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, that took a decade to renovate. They did much of the work themselves, much of it at night and on weekends. Goff documented the process on his blog. (Goff is a graphic designer, while Engel works in tech.) They ultimately sold the house for twice what they had put in.
Around 2020, Goff happened upon a #chateaulife vlog on YouTube, where a family was documenting the highs and lows of buying and renovating a château. He couldn’t believe how cheap the properties were going for, and he pitched Engel on the idea of moving abroad.
“In California you can flip houses and make a lot of money,” Goff says. “I knew going into this that it’s not going to be like that. You do it because you want to live this kind of rustic, ruined lifestyle in the south of France.”
Another chatelain, Abigail Carter, describes a similar trajectory: She had some experience transforming old, dilapidated homes when, as she puts it, she became “obsessed” with buying a château in France.
Abigail Carter furnished her château from local antiques markets. “I’m bringing this house up in terms of its elegance again,” she says.
Originally from Canada, Carter and her husband lived in a succession of fixer-uppers in London, Massachusetts, and New Jersey as they moved around for work and grew their family. After her husband died in the September 11, 2001, attacks — he was visiting a trade show at the World Trade Center that day — Carter relocated to Seattle with their two kids. By 2021 she was living in a converted firehouse she’d renovated and wondering what was next for her.
She found her answer bingeing #chateaulife vlogs on YouTube. “For less than half of what you would pay here for a house, you can get an entire château,” she recalls thinking. “I decided not buying a château in France was going to be more detrimental to my health than buying one.”
Carter made two visits to France before finding a property she felt she could handle on her own. Château de Borie, a 12-bedroom château near Agen, had been vacant for four years. “It was almost like ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’ with all the wires hanging,” Carter recalls. But the place had good bones. Carter closed on the place in 2022, paying $610,000 and budgeting another $200,000 for furnishings and renovations.
Panic kicked in almost immediately. “My God,” she remembers thinking. “What am I doing? Why am I doing this?”
Last year, an enormous cliff above Carter’s property split open and rained rubble down on her property. It will likely take tens of thousands of euros to remove the debris and secure what remains of the cliff. “The cliff has been there for 300 years and it’s been fine,” she says. “Of course, I’ve owned it for a year and a half and this thing comes down on me.”
But the experience has also been thrilling. “I’m bringing this house up in terms of its elegance again,” she says. “French style doesn’t change. It’s very understated and very elegant.”
Recently, a young family from Paris inherited a nearby château and began coming down for weekends. Carter says it’s slowly dawning on them what it will cost to maintain it.
“They love it, but it’s crumbling — literally crumbling,” Carter says.
For many French sellers, what strikes Americans as romantic has come to feel like a curse. Château de l’Espinay, a 15-room manor in Brittany, has been in the family of Williams Henrys d’Aubigny for 250 years. His father, on his deathbed, made him promise never to sell. But at 79, he’s overwhelmed by the time and money the property requires. He has no children of his own, and none of his younger relatives have any interest in moving to northwestern France to take over the place.
Williams Henrys d’Aubigny’s château has been in his family for 250 years. His preferred buyer is “an American who’s got a lot of money.”
Henrys d’Aubigny, like many French owners who feel weighed down by history, is desperate to sell. But he’s also prone to overvaluing what that history is worth. It’s been five years since he listed the château for $2.7 million, and he still doesn’t have a buyer. He estimates it needs $100,000 worth of renovations, though his real-estate agent says it’s more like $1 million. There’s mold, and only one functioning bathroom. The place is so expensive to heat that Henrys d’Aubigny sleeps in a guest cottage during the winter.
“He’s very, very attached to his château,” his agent says. “It’s all he talks about. He thinks you can’t put a price on culture.”
For years, Henrys d’Aubigny has been holding out for a buyer who will love the place as much as he does. But then a couple from Ohio bought a château up the road; he came to admire their commitment and tasteful renovation. He now says his preferred buyer is “an American who’s got a lot of money.”
Most of the Americans who take on a château aren’t looking for a European life of leisure. Their goal is to start a business. Carter, who just hosted her first retreat at Château de Borie, eventually hopes to generate $60,000 a year by marketing the romance of rural France to Americans and Canadians. She plans to host creative retreats for painters and writers, and “healing” retreats for widows. On her website, she sells château-themed T-shirts and art prints, and she has amassed 48,000 subscribers on her Chateau Chronicles channel on YouTube. In a recent video, she toured the grounds of her château and wondered aloud how this was all “somehow mine.”
The attic of the Château de l’Espinay was used as a school during World War II.
At Château Avensac, things have turned out to be even more difficult than Goff and Engel bargained for. Two years ago, Goff woke up from spinal surgery paralyzed from the chest down. The condition is temporary, but regaining the use of his legs has been a slow and difficult process, requiring five or six days a week of physical therapy. A wheelchair isn’t the best way to move around a 48-room château, but Goff is making do.
Goff and Engel say they’re on track to soft-launch their events business in 2025. They’ve also started selling château swag on their website, and they’ve set up a Patreon account so their fans can support the work they’re doing to reclaim a part of France’s history and culture.
“I live in a château,” Engel reminds himself when he’s feeling overwhelmed. “Yes, it’s a crumbling château. But it’s still a château. And there’s something very romantic about that.”
