The pandemic shut down her chateau. Then she became a YouTube star
What do you get when you put a former opera singer, two ex-boyfriends, her French mother, an adopted Scottish brother, a Dutch tango instructor, a Norwegian flower designer and a cheery Argentine house manager together into a sprawling 40-room French chateau?
Well, you get “The Chateau Diaries,” the unlikely YouTube quarantine hit that has made a star of Stephanie Jarvis and her friends and family.
Buying the chateau
Fifteen years ago, Jarvis was living in London, despairing over the cost of housing and complaining about it to her best friend (and ex-boyfriend), Nic, when she realized how relatively inexpensive it was to buy a rambling chateau in France.
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For the price of my two-bedroom flat and Nic’s two-bedroom flat, we were able to buy this chateau. It was the same amount of money as the sale of those two. It’s completely insane,”Jarvis says.
Jarvis had grown up in a large home in England after her British father and French mother bought a large country estate and set about making it into a home for Alzheimer’s patients. Her parents, both nurses, believed living in beautiful surroundings would be beneficial for the patients. So the Jarvis family moved into the attic and placed the patients into the main house below.
Flash-forward several years and Jarvis, then 29 and half-heartedly pursuing a career in opera, decided she missed living in a large, happy home surrounded by people. So she pooled her resources with her ex and decided to buy a chateau with him.
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“For me, I just love being with loads and loads of people around me. There’s nothing I enjoy about the thought of living alone in a flat.”
Chateau de Lalande
Jarvis scoured the French countryside for the perfect chateau, one not too close to major roadways but not too far from important amenities (like cheese shops and good thrift stores).
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In an area not far from Limoges, she first set eyes on the 16th century Chateau de Lalande. She knew she was home.
A dashing ex … and an elusive one
Though Jarvis bought the chateau with her ex, she got moral support (and free labor) from her parents and her then-boyfriend, Michael Potts.
Potts, who was remarkably encouraging of his then-girlfriend buying a chateau with her ex, recently bought into the property, and now Chateau de Lalande is jointly owned by the three of them.
While Jarvis spends much of the year at the chateau, the other two owners spend a significant amount of time away.
Potts is an implausibly dashing photographer who travels the world and keeps a primary residence in the Netherlands with his girlfriend, Ruth.
Nic, known as “the elusive Nic” in the “Chateau Diaries,” generally shuns the spotlight and prefers to not appear on camera when Jarvis films her vlog.
His wife, Marie, and their son, Antoine, feature prominently on the vlogs, however, and have become a beloved part of the roving cast of Lalanders who inhabit the chateau. The family lives in Belgium during the school year, but are renovating a separate apartment in the chateau.
They spend long stretches at the chateau over the summer and winter holidays. They also decided to ride out the pandemic there.
“I think it takes a very strong woman to be fine with your husband still owning something with his ex, especially when it’s not just a little something, when it’s this big part of your life, and in fact, I would say that Marie embraces it more than he does … It was [Marie] who said “Nic, we’re going to Lalande. We’re having it [the lockdown] there.’ “
Volunteers keep it running (and help plan elaborate costume parties)
Jarvis recruits an ever-changing group of volunteers who have skills in cooking, cleaning, gardening and landscape design.
Volunteers are helping Jarvis to restore the chateau; pre-pandemic, they helped her attend to the guests. Free room and board is offered in exchange for their work. And sometimes they just stay on indefinitely.
Norwegian volunteer Marie Wiik initially came to the chateau to help cook and design the occasional flower arrangement. Now she’s set up a large floral studio at the chateau and has gained her own impressive online following, showcasing her flower design.
Dutch tango instructor Selmar Duin showed up at Lalande just as the first lockdown hit France. He drove up to the chateau in his camper van, accompanied by his dog, Diesel. Initially shocked by his appearance (he’d been on the road and unaware Jarvis was locking down and no longer taking in her scheduled volunteers), his carpentry skills and ability to MacGyver solutions to the chateau’s problems proved so useful he has been officially hired.
Argentine Natalia “Nati” Oliveto was so capable as a volunteer she was hired to handle all guest reservations, house management and fan mail coming into the chateau.
Other volunteers help with elaborate table settings and decoration projects. Since Jarvis loves a theme party, volunteers need to have an appreciation for spur-of-the-moment disco parties, James Bond nights and extravagant Versailles-inspired galas.