The Money Talk
What Our French Château Really CostsThe Numbers, The Dream, and Everything in Between
There’s something magnetic about a château—and no place like the French Loire Valley to tell their stories. Most of you have experienced it during your visit to Chateau de Belebat.
Yes, there’s is something magical about a chateau… Maybe it’s the fact that we grew up hearing fantastic stories around them. Maybe it’s the faded grandeur, or the echo of footsteps from another century, or the way the light moves across stone walls thicker than your outstretched arms… Maybe it’s the idea of stepping into a story that started long before you were born, and will keep going long after you’re gone.
But if you’ve ever watched videos like “What Our French Château Really Costs,” you’ll know the magic doesn’t float alone—it comes tied to a long, stubborn list of financial realities.
The dream is real—but so is the bill.
Let’s walk through it, room by room.
Watch it now
If you prefer moving pictures to still numbers, here’s the video where we face the money talk we have been avoiding for so long.
The Seduction Trap:
Buying a Château is shockingly easy. Like many real estate stories, it often starts with a curious peek onto those estate agency photos in their window or—even worse—an online listing you come across as you scroll through your boredom. Suddenly, there it is… a castle. Literally, a castle. On sale for the price of a two-bedroom apartment in a major city.
Stone turrets, sprawling lawns, carved fireplaces. All for a number that makes you tilt your head and whisper, “Wait, seriously?”
And yes, seriously. we all have done it—and some of us still do!
Châteaux in France can be surprisingly affordable to purchase, especially if they need work—spoiler: most need quite a bit of work. Then the purchase price feels like a warm invitation. Tempting, romantic, and deceptively accessible.
But as every château owner eventually learns… the price tag at the start is just the key to the front door.
Everything else comes after.
The Reality Behind The Fairytale
The first moment of awakening often arrives when you peel back a plaster wall or pull up an innocent-looking floorboard. That is when your renovations start laughing at your budget—and it hits the fan.
Old houses have secrets. that is the biggest draw to them. well, châteaux have entire histories hidden inside them. Behind those secrets are the costs—sometimes small, most times enormous. Renovations in a château aren’t like renovations in a normal home. They’re more like archeology, paired with engineering, wrapped in logistics. Bottled up inside your next headache—hehehe.
Here’s what tends to hit first:
Structural repairs
Roofs the size of football fields. Beams older than entire countries. Stone walls that shift with the seasons. One of the appeals of Belebat was its brand new roof covering the chateau. So far we have spent over 60,000€ on three roofs and some repairs. The chateau has four towers still in need of restoration. The most important one is a small pictured on the left end. The Pilgrim’s Room tower has a price tag of 17,000€ waiting for us.
Electrical and plumbing
A lot of châteaux went decades — even centuries — without modern rewiring.
Plumbing can look like a history museum of pipes. We had nothing. 100,000€ went underground just to lay the network of tubes—not the wiring!
Heating—the big taboo
Heating a château is… an adventure.
Some rooms are so big the heat rises out of reach, gathering near the ceiling like a lazy ghost. The key is never let the stone go cold—it will then take days to get the temperature back. The chateau used oil before the fire. We are taking the sustainable approach. Just as a guide, installing underfloor heating on the ground floor alone, brings an eye-watering bill of 100,000€. Obviously we are searching for alternatives!
Windows the size of small cars
Replacing or restoring them? Bring a chair, you’ll need to sit down for the quote. After the devastating fire in January 2003, all doors and windows were gone. We moved to a shell and slowly started closing it in. In the picture is one of the design for the front door. It is never going to happen and a new design was made by me soon after. The reason?—glad you asked, a mind-blowing 24,000€ for ONE door. Made of oak, not gold.
Making it comfortable
Bathrooms (10,000€/each), kitchen (25,000€), insulation (55,000€), flooring (starting at 80m2)— all need to be done because there’s nothing in place here. And when you scale that up across dozens of rooms…well, you get the idea.
Renovation is where the true investment begins, and it often becomes a second job in a full-time life.
The Quiet Costs, Things You Pay Every Year
Once the initial storms settle, you enter the long season of maintenance — the never-ending background hum of château life. These costs rarely shout, but they never stop.
Heating—your biggest annual companion. Sure the château in winter is romantic and Christmas always looks like out of children’s book. Now think stone walls that drink warmth like a thirsty giant. This is when the romance comes to life.
Grounds and garden upkeep. The land is beautiful and also hungry for constant attention. That is just our reality… without proper gardens and with the constant excuse of living in a construction zone!
I know it is an abstract thought to many, but there is a constant flow of regular repairs one must prepare for. Old shutters swell, pipes groan, roofs complain, doors warp — châteaux move like living creatures, and they expect you to keep up.
Taxes, insurance, odds and ends—you know, all the boring, normal expenses of adulthood. The size of your castle.
For us, Belebat demand an average of 4,000€ each and every month—just to keep the lights on as one may say. It’s not ruinous, but it’s persistent. Château owners often say “You don’t own a château — it owns you just a little.”
The Lifestyle, Equal Parts Chaos and Beauty
Here’s the part people don’t always expect: A château doesn’t just change your finances.
It changes your life. You become someone who:
knows the names of stone mason and lime-plaster suppliers
spends weekends sanding floors or oiling beams
grows strangely fond of drafty hallways
can discuss heating systems like other people discuss wine
learns to laugh when the electricity goes out in just the west wing
There’s chaos, of course. Dust, unfinished projects, tools you don’t remember buying, and a perpetual to-do list. But there’s also a quiet, astonishing beauty: Sunlight pouring through tall windows at dawn, candlelit dinners in old dining rooms filled with echoes… long walks across your own land, watching seasons move like slow theatre. History humming in every corner.
It’s not glamorous—not really— but it’s poetic. It’s grounding. It’s a kind of love story with architecture and time.
Why People Still Say Yes
Given all the costs, all the work, all the unpredictability, why do people still buy châteaux and why would we do it all over again? Because a château offers something money alone can’t buy: Meaning. Purpose. Legacy. A project bigger than yourself. A chance to restore a little corner of history and call it home. Now, typing this in as I write along is giving me goosebumps—and my right eye might feel a little bit flooded.
Every repaired tile, every restored beam, every revived garden path becomes part of your story—woven into the story of a place that has seen centuries.
A château is not a house. It’s a narrative you step into and help continue.
Final Thoughts: The True Cost of the Dream
So what does a French château really cost?
Money, yes—plenty of it.
Time—more than you expect.
Energy—constantly.
Patience—absolutely.
But ask any of us who live in them, and we’ll tell you the reward is worth the reckoning. Because in return, a château gives you something priceless: a home that breathes, a life rooted in beauty, and a story you get to continue writing every single day.