THE MYSTERY OF THE CHATEAU'S MISSING LAKE!!!

hello and happy Sunday welcome to Sundays at the Chateau for those of you who don't know me I'm Stephanie the shuttle n of the 16th century chateau in the heart of France as you can see I'm in a slightly different outfit today and that's because today I want to take you on a walk outside and tell you the story of the missing Lake of the Chateau it was so stunningly beautiful in the past you cannot imagine when we moved in Lalande was standing by a five acre lake that had probably been reflecting its beauty for about a thousand years there's been a chateau on this site for at least a thousand years though the one that I live in today dates from the 16th century but the lake and the moats are much older and a vestiges of the medieval castle the moats were a very important defensive feature in medieval times that would have prevented defenders from attacking the Chateau with any ease and the lake was also important as a food source because the lakes in this region were all man-made and they were created specifically for fishing the boathouse rose out of the water we used to take the boat out for picnics at lunchtime and also have boat races against each other but as you can see from this aerial view our lake is no longer a lake it is now a wetland just a few years after I'd moved in the French water police came to visit me and delivered some shocking news I had to drain the lake or risk a massive fine and over a hundred thousand euros worth of work because of new EU regulations preventing man-made barrages on tributaries of primary fishing Class rivers draining the lake is actually very easy you just lift the sluice gate and the water drains away very fast and they scared me and kept telling me that it was my responsibility to do this or I would be in terrible trouble and like a I believed them and did what they told me to do I later discovered that because our lake is on the plunk Cassini which is an ancient French map and therefore shows how old it is I am allowed to keep it and if I'd completely ignored them and refused to drain the lake they would have had to give me a 50% grant to do the works to bring it in line with the new EU regulations but because they tricked me into emptying it by scaring me when I was alone at the Chateau and had absolutely money they now do not have to give me the grant and the reason I haven't made this video before now is that honestly I find it too upsetting and I've been a bit of an ostrich I'm just pretending it's not happening not facing up to it but that's going to change now and it's going to change largely because of the support that I've had from all of you on my patron account I can't believe this as I'm saying it but I only set it up last Sunday and last Sunday's video and I thought maybe one or two people who'd asked me about it would sign up but I have nearly a hundred patrons and so now I can see a time when we can fix things like the problem with the lake so I'm feeling a little bit more optimistic about things which means that I have the strength to make this video that I did not have the strength to make before and that's because of all of you so let's wrap up warm and go outside to solve the mystery of the missing Lake in some of these shots you might be able to tear a drowning in the background and that's because ian has really kindly offered to take some drone shots so that you get a better idea of how the lake fits in with the Chateau and the moats we're just arriving at the old boathouse now the poor thing is just marooned in a dry lake there's our poor marooned boat the water came up to this path and there's the old boathouse and I don't think we'll ever be able to get the boathouse back it seems that even if we can get the lake back it would have to be ten metres from the path at least which means that there's no way that this boathouse could be sitting in it but I do want to save the structure and use it in future and we're thinking of making it into a proper floor here and then maybe hanging chandeliers and using it for dinner parties in the evenings or making a lounge that we can fit here and look out in summer and if we're very quiet I'm sure that we would see deer and maybe even wild boar because they're certainly here in the woods it's such a great structure I definitely want to save it and find really good uses for it the view from here is beautiful even now of just the wetland and you can see how old are like just by glancing at the stone walls of its structure it has incredibly ancient walls this is the path down through the woods towards the stream of lands the source of all of the joys of the lake and all of its problems because it's a tributary of the vulva and our village is called causal vulva and the border has been classed a primary class fishing river and therefore no tributaries of it can have a man-made barrage or so they said this is the old wooden bridge that andreas repaired when he was staying here using old planks of oak that we had and he also made these great sculptures oops another tree is down the stream arrives from the west and goes under our bridge and from here it goes down through the dry lakebed forming a wetland and then out underneath the road into the woodland stream on the other side this little bridge is my favorite spot in the woods at Lyell and I love the fact that the stream meanders through ancient stone walls that predate the Chateau and I could listen to the water all day long and from this spot I'm going to take you on a walk through the woods to show you just how magical the land is here there is something indescribably ancient and healing about it and it is worth saving the woods that lull and feel like fairyland in every season I think possibly the most magical is when it snows which it hasn't done this winter and it's silent out here and white it's like Narnia but my favorite time of year by far is the spring when a carpet of blue belt comes out and one of our woods in particular becomes fairyland it's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen and I hope it happens again this year because I'll take lots of video the daffodils just starting to come out in the woods this is where the lake used to end this line of trees but as you can see it's completely dry up to here now we're standing on what was the bank of the lake and you can see just how big it was because from here we can't even see the chateau I'm walking along the park which goes all the way around what used to be the edge of the lake it's the most beautiful walk I love the fact that the woods are filled with boulders that are covered with moss leyland is sitting on granite bedrock and there are a lot of quarrys around here and you can see that just from the size of the boulders used in this wall the woods are filled with oak beech birch and Holly there's some Holly right here and more evergreens as you get closer to the Chateau itself and on any walks through our words you'll see lots of piles of wood which are waiting to be taken into the Chateau hanger to be stored for youth in the winter the highest quality oak from French woods is used to make the barrels for wine and some of our Oaks have ended up as wine barrels which is a nice thought feel they really live on well off to their death I love the sound of the crunching leaves underfoot and finally here you can see Leyland and the old boathouse through the trees everything that you can see behind me was part of our five acre lake and now we've reached the road that snakes through Leland's property the road is the edge of the lake and it used to overflow under the road which is still the path that the stream takes today it then carries on through our woods on the other side and here you can just about see through the bear winter trees are smaller lake and our small lake marks the edge of our property because the buildings that you can see beyond our neighbors farm though it was originally a part of the Chateau for a thousand years but was sold separately when we bought back in 2005 although this lake is much smaller than our five acre one it does give you an idea of how glorious ours looked at the foot of La Land throughout our woods there are these ancient stone walls covered with moss and I think they show the true age of the Chateau we know that people were living here in the 1200 and I'm sure that some of these paths are vestiges of those days and it's so quiet and peaceful where we live the only sounds are the birds and the running water coming out here and seeing the loss of the lake still upsets my mother she doesn't like to come and see it at all but actually I'm filled with hope that we'll be able to do something in the future because without optimism we don't achieve anything in life what a beautiful day look at that sunlight dappled through the trees I love this field because there's a beautiful word behind it and you might be able to hear it but you can't quite see it just to the base of those trees is the prettiest stream surrounded by granite rocks and then very excitingly our ruined mill it would originally have had a wheel that could have been turned when water is let out of our lake you can still see that the stream snakes its way through this wetland and if we shut the sluices the lake would be full again within two days it's very fast and now of course we have a forest growing in it this is the area of the lower field where the lake was emptied into and you can still see the gate that was for stopping the fish as the water went out so that that area could be used for fishing everything that was in the lake when it was drained every two years for a huge fish especially of carp and then there's a little cut ditch that carries on to join the stream and here you can see the path that the water would have taken in the past when it was powering this water mill this mill would have been used to mill flour because the Chateau has its own bread oven had its own field and would certainly have been producing its own flour and bread or can you imagine the views that that water mill would have if we rebuilt it I think it's still one of the most beautiful places on earth and this is the path that the water takes snaking through the wetland and then over to the overflow where we have a waterfall which sounds gorgeous this is our overflow and if we close it the lake comes back almost instantly it is so so tempting I'm controlling myself let's do this properly and it closes under the road and comes out on the other side and from here it goes into the most beautiful stream founded by granite boulders which meanders through our words now we don't usually have red and white barriers through the road but we have a very large problem with I think probably because the lake was drained everything is drying out all of the walls and they're starting to crack and therefore the road is in danger here luckily the commune was given the road in the 1960s by the previous owners and so they very kindly have said that this is going to be at their cost but this is huge works the road cuts through our land but for the entire time that I've been out here filming I haven't seen a single car and it's usually like that it's incredibly peaceful and from the woods on this side of the property you have a much better view of the water coming under the road it's hard to describe the beauty of our walk through the woods there is no more relaxing place on earth rooks unrecognizable as rooks anymore they're all being used as the base for wonderful things I could that green moss and the new shoots I wonder if this is the start of our blue belt coming up they're still the remnants of all the chestnuts from the autumn with the new growth of spring pushing through here's another wall that's become an entire ecosystem if you look down here you'll see that even the path is a bed of moss there's all sorts of strange and wonderful things growing everywhere things seem to grow out of the very rock that holds this land and this Chateau together I actually feel like just lying here and staring up at the treetops but I'm going to carry on with the walk and show you the moats now I'm heading out of the woods and back towards the lowland past the old fishery and towards our moats and this is the chateaus old fishery a game as the granite walls a boat would have been docked here and this entire area was used for restocking the lake once it had been drained for the fishing so every two years the lake was drained the fish was sold by the side of the road and some were kept put in here and allowed to breed and then put back into the lake when the water came back just about through the trees in the background you can make out the 16th century wing of Lenin in the dry part you can still see the old stone walls of the fishery and I think this would be very easy to put back here it's just a case of some naughty icon down which our South American Beavers who've been making holes in our walls letting the water out the moats are what remains of the medieval castle that would have stood on this site now there's only a stream at the base of what was once the East moat at Lalonde and it was absolutely huge there's a forest growing in it now this is our southern field and at the base of it there's a tiny stream and incredibly it's this stream that feeds the moats of Lalande it passes under the road and trickles into the moat that is at the front of the chateau this side of the moat is all that remains of Leland's wants mighty defenses you can see that the 16th century part of the Chateau was built for protection whereas the 19th century part was built for pleasure pleasure and protection I feel safe and happy here and I am determined to restore this Chateau until it's more glorious than ever before I hope you enjoyed this walk with me through the property at Leyland through our words and to see a dry lake I am definitely not going to give up hope and because of your overwhelming support we now have nearly a thousand euros coming in from patrons to Leyland every month which is unbelievable and I now see I'm not only going to be able to put money aside for the paneling in the car salon I'm also going to be able to Commission the survey which is our first step in getting this lake back this summer I am going to ask for the survey and I'm going to begin this fight to turn back this act of vandalism and restore the lake to La Land if you enjoyed this video then please subscribe to this channel there will be lots more things about chateaus in future and you can't imagine what a difference it makes to our ability to renovate this 16th century Chateau and if you'd like to become one of the patrons of Leyland then please go to patreon.com/scishow diaries I am so grateful to all of you who have already done that you're making a very very real difference here thank you and now I'm home and it's time for a warming cup of tea but just before I have my cup of tea I would like to give a personal thank you to our mucky and Marquis of Lala and brian woodward and caroline foster who are each pledging $100 a month and to all of our counts and countesses of Leyland whose names you can see here you you

Channel: The Chateau Diaries

Views: 122,551

Keywords: chateau de lalande, chateau diaries, chateau life, chateaux in france, chatelaine, dream chateau, escape to the chateau, escape to the chateau diy, french castles, french country home, french country house, french country living, historic house, life in a chateau, living in a castle today, living in a chateau, living in a french chateau, stately home, stephanie chateau, stephanie jarvis, stephanie jarvis chateau de la lande, the chateau diaries

Id: 5lfSDmDB0kc

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 16 2020