Restoring Original Versailles Parquet Flooring | French Chateau Renovations #46

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Thanks to our growing Patreon community, we are able to ease the cost upcoming electrical work for the chateau!
Patreon funding goes directly toward renovating the historical Chateau de Lesigny domain.
Special thanks to our dear Patrons: Andrea, Jesse, Bernadette, Theo, and Morgan for your outstanding support of this Beau Chateau!
You can help support our renovation projects by joining our Patreon Community and gain access to exclusive videos, updates and more!
Join us, Daphne and Ian, as we embark on our new chateau renovation projects! This week, Benoit joins us to restore our Versailles Parquet on the entire ground floor of the chateau!
Our "beau chateau" (The 500-year-old, Chateau De Lesigny), is located near Paris, France. Most of the structures around the chateau domain need a full restoration, so we are investing everything we have into making the property thrive! We are learning more about french culture and developing new skills along the way!
As a French/American UC Berkeley graduate in Agriculture (Daphne), and a U.S. Air Force Tactical Response Force Veteran/ Kinesiologist (Ian), we share a love for challenges and adventure. We have a long road ahead of us and we are excited to share the experience with you!
You can support our renovation projects by joining our Patreon Community, where you can also gain access to exclusive videos and behind the scene access with Daphne and Ian! All patron funding is used to renovate this historical French Chateau. Every patron is paramount to our chateau renovations and we thank you all tremendously!
Produced by Daphne and Ian
Videography & Editing by Ian
All music tracks used in this video are licensed by Artlist and MusicBed:

[@TamaraSanchez-kg2cd]

Benoit's expertice is priceless. The work on the floor looks beautiful.

[@thebeardedseeker5633]

Archaea looks so much like my boy, Winter. Love Swiss White Shepherds. ❤

[@corricatt]

Benoit to the rescue (AGAIN!!) Loving the progress!!

[@TheBeauChateau]

Thank you! Benoit is the man with a plan 🤓

[@melissaeden1219]

How amazing that someone had the foresight to save the old floor panels. It looks so good now that you've removed the layers of wax.

[@eightiesallen3180]

You can plant bulbs in the Spring. They may not bloom this year, but they will get established for next Spring.

[@TheBeauChateau]

Wonderful! 😊

[@didi2s]

The dahlias will bloom in the summer. Now is the perfect time to plant them. Go buy some more! 😃

[@JPayne-ul4qd]

​@@didi2s Have burlap on hand just in case of frost. Keeps the flowers from frost damage.

[@ruthnoronha8206]

Yah dahlias are great bloomers. Flowers last a long time and if you fertilize they will produce.

[@suek7086]

Be prepared to stake the da Hali as or they flop to the ground.

[@jeannebernard923]

You are very lucky to have Benoit, so honest and a trustworthy person, also his funny humour. The floor looks magnificent 👌

[@3_3645]

He needs his own tube platform

[@user-xo6pr6zw7l]

Benoit really knows his business. It's always best to consult an expert I think.

[@ncc74656m]

I LOVE having Benoit's expertise come through even more than it does on How to Renovate - not that I don't love Benoit's humor there. But you really show just how brilliant he is and let his skill and depth of knowledge come through.

[@peterwhite9261]

Benoit, is an amazing carpenter and repair man. He brings so much humor to his work. He has genuine love for his work and his clients. The floors look amazing. The gardening was lovely. The good thing about bulbs is that they come back yearly unless squirrels steal them. I would love to see a tour of your chateau. Best wishes to you both.❤

[@elisaesskew6954]

Ahhhhh! Benoit, he is such a Master of his craft❤ I watch him with Phillip and Anna also! He is just amazing🩷🩷🩷

[@sapphirecamui6447]

Thank you for confirming it's the same Benoit - i thought I'm imagining things. LOL

[@corricatt]

I gave up on those two, got sick of their constantly begging for money

[@sapphirecamui6447]

@@corricatt I also gave up on those two, but i forgot why... oh, i follow too many channels and i didn't have time to watch them anymore. I didn't realize they constantly ask for money. but since they don't have a BNB business anymore, it makes sense they do. I think it was a stupid move on their part because it was another source of income. Although, the way she decorated the guestrooms... kind of minimalist for a chateau. Stephanie at Lalande at least tries to make the rooms as close as possible to what they would have been, and her guests can dream of being princes and princesses while sleeping there. And she finally started to show actual renovations taking place. I gave up watching another channel because the couple always mentions just how poor they are and can't afford buying an apartment in the capital they live in, or to travel more often to her home-country.

[@KeangoDLuke]

​@@corricatt when have they done that? Or are you talking about them marketing their patreon, a very normal thing to do

[@corricatt]

@@KeangoDLuke candles, wallpaper classes.. just wasn’t my cup of tea

[@lgannawa]

I absolutely LOVE your content. It takes me away to a place far from US politics, to a beautiful peaceful place with wonderful people. Thank you!!

[@Kropikovo]

@13:31 In almost all major chateaus in our country, those that are open to public, you have to wear slippers made of felt. Even the sole is felt. It makes them very slippery, so you can almost ice-skate on the floor. All kids love it, all man that are still kids inside love it, the owners love it, because we don't ruing their floor, and since we're ice-skating all around the building, we polish the floor for them :D

[@Stefdtyler]

Wait! Is this Benoit?! He is so talented. I’ve been watching his work on How to renovate a Chateau. Love him.

[@HabitualButtonPusher]

This channel is so amazing. How you both don’t have a half million subscribers is beyond me.

[@user-fu8ub2rj6q]

I know right!!!

[@eyejs]

They don’t post daily like some do!

[@maryforman7214]

Please, post more often! I love your stuff!😊

[@sarahpenrose9681]

Love everything people mention about yourselves and Benoit but the star is your beautiful dog 🐶

[@gerrick6901]

As one of the ghostly residents of the chateau, thank you for fixing that bump. It's been bothering us since the 17th century.

[@Arkhinemor]

yayy it's always a good day when there's a new episode!! I always look forward to them!

[@JaniceStPeter]

Exactly!

[@patricketcaleb]

Versailles parquet flooring is exceptional. it remains my favorite. Benoît is a great professional and his humor is hilarious. Bonne continuation dans les travaux de rénovation

[@deidrespencer5467]

Thank you for explaining the intricacies of your beautiful parquet floor, Daphne. Fascinating, and the finished floor is stunning! 👌👏

[@user-wi1tl9ev6y]

I love that dog and I can see he’s always guarding you.❤

[@why25why]

Benoit - master craftsman.

[@GardenerPhyl]

Ahhhh Benoit - the skilled craftsman carpenter that is a gift to French chateau owners!

[@louisegogel7973]

Wonderful video…. 🌳 tree pruning with the wind💨, 🌷bulbs galore ready for the next seasons, gorgeous floor renovation🪚🪛🔨, happy to see you both and Benoit. 🩷 Thank you for all the work you put into your chateau. May your grandfather’s spirit guide and guard you all and the chateau to all your most joyous bests.

[@TheSecretChateau]

"Waxing the floor between every single event." The floors in our château are a similar design to yours. We oil our ballroom perhaps every five years using Osmo PolyX. It is the perfect product because it is natural oils, not wax, and the wood holds up beautifully. They look as though they are polished every day, but no, only at five year intervals. They take a battering too - numerous events, kids, dogs, skateboards, you name it, yet after all this the Osmo is still perfection. I cannot comprehend of doing the floors after every event. What a chore!

[@MrYanngo]

I agree. There are way better products available now other than traditionnal wax. Hell, I'd even try to epoxy the floors completely to seal and fill in the gaps, then sand smooth, and then either varnish with Bona Trafic hD or some Oil based product. The epoxy would stabilize everything and keep the wood intact for another 100 years.

[@sherrywoods4630]

A delightful episode. Whoooo - Benoit sure knows his stuff. I am so happy he has healed and back to share his wealth of knowledge and skills.

[@billb5749]

I'm so happy to see a new video. It's like a visit from and old friend. thanks for posting. Give Archaea a big hug for me!

[@TheBeauChateau]

Archaea will surely appreciate that ☺️

[@Hilma2]

The castle is so beautiful and romantic that every girl dreams of.

[@aaronmkeith1622]

I watch several Chateau restoration channels. I think your Chateau is the most beautiful! Your grandfather picked a good one!

[@Grahamvlogs802vt]

This channel should get an Oscar award or streamy award 😊

[@TheBeauChateau]

Thank you! We would also be happy with a cookie award. Chocolate chip.

[@corricatt]

@@TheBeauChateau 🍪

[@Grahamvlogs802vt]

Cookie 🍪

[@jamesmasters4255]

The dog understand French and English……awesome!

[@rubberdc]

I LOVE watching you both working on the beautiful home you own ,

[@N0N4M30]

On vois que Benoit adore son travail

[@The_Travelling_Jonoberries]

Excellent work with the parquetry floors👍⛵️🙏🇦🇺🏰

[@briguy91931]

Ive never been a BIG fan of bulbs til I finally listened to my mom and my Nana and got some! Now pretty much my whole yard is bulbs! Bahahahaha

[@susanne1724]

I haven't even watched the video yet, but seeing you guys uploaded again made me do a little happy dance :) Looking forward to watching you create magic with your own hands!

[@donnabaker6252]

Years agp my mother used to clean our waxed floors with Varsal and steel wool before waxing - so the wax never built up. Mind you it was a normal house not a Chateau.

[@JanHastings-ns7ze]

I have been watching you from the beginning. I would love to see more videos. Love that you have taken on the challenge to bring the beauty of your property and home back. Thank you

[@stephjezo6470]

Hope everything is going well, it has been a bit now! Missing the antics. 😁

[@kellywhitaker3483]

LOL, you always make the newbie run the floor machine for this very reason.

[@rubberdc]

Make the table at the gate the place to pay to get inside ! lol

[@ionabarker]

The drone shots, colours, and lighting is always so stunning 🤩 superb 👌🏻

[@dollhousez]

You should put the daffodils in the fridge and plant them in october. Dahlias you can plant now if your not expecting hard freezes.

[@lindamounts2193]

Beautiful floors and craftsmanship.

[@lorassorkin]

It's wonderful to have so much of the original chateau intact, and even some spare parts! The restoration looks magnificent!

[@martinehug-simon3811]

PlanT the dahlias, glaieuls and the frutilliarias now and for the rest wait until October!!!!! Happy planting❤❤Loved to see Benoit lifting the Parket I did not know it was done that way!!!!

[@teepeeX]

Great job, the best Carpenter Benoit 😊

[@seawallstudio2043]

✨ ✨All you do is great but especially those magnificent straight lines in the “lawn”✨✨

[@primrosed2338]

Benoit working around Archaea was so cute and funny!

[@dianac52176]

I was just thinking about how we hadn’t seen you two for awhile. I missed you. It appears, however, that you’ve been busy. Thanks for the vlog. Enjoying your channel from Mexico City.

[@shanacrous2214]

You've got to love Benoit. ❤

[@talesfromtuscany]

You're going to have gorgeous flowers ready for "next" spring I think ...oh well very well prepared in advance! 🤩The parquet looks stunning after the treatment and Benoit's talented fixing...such a wonderful home that so many people will enjoy this season I'm sure! Bisous Marisa 🥰🤗😘💖

[@TVSbro]

Man, Benoit is brilliant with all this! A real artist!

[@suek7086]

I love having to work with a large dog in the middle of everything. I do it all the time because large dog?

[@elisabethe8055]

The room is a masterpiece on its own, adding the beautiful handcrafted floor to the plate i makes it just magnificent.. Benoit is a gem, so skilled, friendly and helpful. Good job guys, i hope the floor will last another 100 years.

[@ftwtexasstephens9629]

So good to see Benoit!

[@marilizevandermerwe8343]

Wow!! Thank you for this lesson. We always learn something from Benoit. Love you Benoit. Thank you for teaching us about wood etc.

[@user-wh9vj1th3u]

The floor looks beautiful. I would love to have the chevron type of wood floor in my own home.

[@TeTris99XD]

I watched all of your videos in the last 5-6 days and now there is a new one, thats great :D

[@qpc1263]

I love the dog. He looks like mine

[@mirtrain]

Benoit is such a gem!

[@jlloeppke]

❤❤❤ beautiful floors! Thank goodness for Benoit!

[@user-ry9py1re2z]

You both are so cute together❣️ You remind me of my husband and myself many moons ago. I love how you work together. Keep up the good work.

[@jeffreydysart4196]

the floor looks fantastic

[@user-yu7ye8ro8x]

Yet another job WELL DONE Keep up the great work. Regards from AUS 🥰

[@columroche435]

Great work all, love your video content as always. 👍

[@deirdrecerasa3932]

Somehow I have missed your videos for awhile. Glad to be back. The floors are gorgeous. ❤️

[@DavidS5118]

Stunning front entry gate, not really sure I have seen it up close in a video before.

[@eriquita]

10:26 Te amo, hermosa perrita durmiente! 🥹🥰

[@Marykguise]

Stunning floors!! Great repair job! So good to see Benoit as always. Love from Mary in Southern California 💗

[@cindyloomis-torvi3396]

You can also refrigerate the bulbs and that will allow them to break dormancy and grow.

[@jaysmith8199]

Those parquet floors are magnificent. Can you osmo them instead of waxing? Ask Benoit what he thinks.... I would be shouting at people to get their high heels off my beautiful floor! 😁

[@tonivalenzuela8274]

Those floors are amazing. Benoit to the rescue. It will be lovely to see all those bulbs in bloom.

[@gaelenecole4053]

Awww your floors are beautiful .. Benoit is amazing … Love the drone shots …. How exciting watching bulbs grow 😁🙌❤🫶

[@cynthiacontini]

I really enjoyed this vlog. The floor looks beautiful and Benoit is a master of his craft. Thank goodness you had some older wood panels put away.👏👏💪

[@ricardathomason5485]

So glad you were able to repair the floor, it’s looking beautiful 😍🤩

[@cliveklg7739]

The lawns look so much better now that they are regularly cut and maintained. Have you thought of Sanding once, then applying Osmo?

[@emilywunder2363]

Your content is so great, I swear if you all could post more frequently your channel would blow up. Truly.

[@3_3645]

Broken pots look great on their side with plants spilling out too. The bulbs may not flower this year but maybe next year. Read up on dahlias as to your climate zone we have to dig up the tubers and store over winter.

[@stephaniegaromon3244]

Wow, the floors look amazing!! In the fall buy lots of tulip bulbs and plant them in some of your urns. Crowd them in the pots. The urns can be outside during the winter, and in the spring you’ll have full pots of beautiful tulips. The dahlias are summer blooming flowers but they have to be dug up after the flowers die down, cleaned off and put in brown paper bags and keep inside your dungeon until the following spring when you can plant them again and begin the process every year. They are worth it because they are beautiful. xx

[@michaelabordessoule9388]

I used to sand and wax the kitchen worktop and windowsills. It was labour intensive and short lived work. Now I discovered Osmo and keep thinking how many hours of work I could have saved myself over the last 20 years only if I used it earlier.

[@sue7190]

Rather than waxing the floor consider having the parquet lacquered. We have a solid oak floor that is lacquered with Bona lacquer. It is cleaned with Bona wood cleaner which is sprayed on and mopped with a microfibre mop - no water which preserves the wood and the finish. The first time it was done it lasted 10 years. The artisan that did it had refinished the floors at the British museum in London so you get an idea how hard wearing it is. ❤

[@ruthnoronha8206]

Beautiful floors.

[@mariak9727]

😍I love you guys and the chateau but Archaea steals the show!! 💖🐾🐾💖

[@celinebrochu1491]

We miss you 😔

[@joslinw9187]

Is it me or Archaea's fur are turning brown golden, hehe anyway love Archaea! Hope can pat her one day

[@marciareagan2718]

Beautiful!!🎉❤

[@Tawadeb]

Looks beautiful

[@vickielibby7006]

Always fun and knowledgeable video's 😊😂😅😊

[@marilynleslie472]

Your floors are gorgeous! Good to Benoit again.

[@hmeyers5114]

It is such joy when you post a video! 💖💖💃🕺Hopefully, the two of you have been busy having fun and enjoying life together.

[@yomogami4561]

still trying to watch with only one eye atm but enjoying listening to everyone i hope people see benoit's craftsmanship in france and support him by patronizing his business and the same for the chateau archaea was just holding down the flooring to make sure it laid flat

[@westpacificmarketanalytics2384]

Watch those fingers around Benoit!

[@robynjones9379]

Very soon , craftsmen such as Benoit will no longer be here to share the depth of their knowledge and share inspiration through attention to detail. Bravo Benoit.

[@ruthnoronha8206]

I hope, because I’m not a bulb expert, but I hope the store has already put these bulbs through the stratification process, so hopefully they should bloom. But plant quickly if you want to enjoy some blooms.

[@fratertimotheusmariae2029]

JMJ Benoit is a prince.

[@dons9712]

Well done.

[@paulrosa6173]

If you can keep those bulbs in a cool place until the fall you can put them in the ground then. I was told to store them in dry saw dust. The Agway manager years ago gave me his out of season stock but I couldn't get rid of them all and also forgot to put them at the right time. I got distracted and missed the right time to set them in. By the next year they had dried out. Apparently parquet de Versailles was not the first choice for the palace. The state apartments were originally paved in marble. However marble proved to be difficult to wash as the water would seep through and stain the ceilings of the apartments below. The parquet was easier to wash because it would swell and not leak If the floors are not original to your chateau perhaps you have some of the Versailles parquet in more than name? The palace has been refloored many times in its history and the old parquet was sold off. That building has taken a lot of foot traffic. No doubt it all gets bought up by apartment dwellers and house builders/remodelers etc. Did your grandfather have them installed? The fact that the floors were herringbone in part tells some kind of story of having some but not enough for the whole room. There's even a story of a time when a child was born to one of the princely couples. The courtiers, as a celebration, took the boards for some parquet not yet installed and built a bonfire with them. The King said, more or less, let them have some fun! It's been a common floor pattern in France for several hundred years but who knows, maybe you have some of the original stuff from one of the refloorings?

[@rosemariedeschenes7013]

What a gift to have Benoit assisting you. The bulbs probably will not bloom this year but definitely fertilize them in the fall and next year you should get some blooms. Bonne chance 😍😘

[@kellylarson3020]

I love your videos and your Chateau

[@faeryvixenetc]

Always happy to see Benoit!

[@jdrew5367]

If any of your tulips blossom, you’re gonna want to spray them with something that deters the rabbits and deer from eating them because once they eat the blossom, the bulb will not grow again. If you want to deter Deer crushed eggshells the eggshells also give calcium to the ground as the shells decompose. Thank you.