My Chateau Lalande Story

On my first trip to France, I booked a visit to Chateau Lalande on what turned out to be their last day of guests for the season. I visited in hopes of meeting the YouTube famous Stephanie Jarvis and talk with her about the experience of owning a chateau in France as a single woman. Stephanie is one of the YouTubers who enabled my pandemic addiction that ultimately has led to my chateau insantity. My visit was wonderful and while I was there, I did a little drawing of Lalande, and Stephanie scurried by as I was drawing it to see what I was up to. We had a brief conversation and she was on her way.

Stephanie did not appear at dinner, but the next morning as I was leaving, she appeared, looking as she often does, radiant in a dressing gown. She was just as she seems on YouTube, bubbly and vivacious, and when I told her I had finished the drawing, she immediately asked if she could film it for the vlog. I agreed and here I am in all my stupor (timestamp 4:14)

When I returned home from the trip, I decided to make a postcard from the drawing and send some to Chateau Lalande. At the last minute, I included a copy of my book as well. Stephanie seemed interested in my story, so I thought she might like it (as much as you can like a book on grief). And then I forgot all about it until yesterday when someone found me on Facebook and told me they were from Seattle and had bought my book after seeing it on the Cadeau channel. By now I was aware that there was a Cadeau channel, though I wasn’t when I sent the book. Stephanie receives so many gifts from her viewers that she began filming the gift opening and created a whole new channel for it. The channel became so popular that she now donates the proceeds from the channel to a variety of charities. An amazing full circle of win-wins!

I wasn’t prepared for Stephanie opening the book and reading the back cover story, or the others beside her tearing up. After I watched the video I began reading the comments on the page. My goodness! I am overwhelmed by the reactions! I’ll say no more. Here’s the video (timestamp 12:23)

As always, I am amazed by the ripples we create in the world when we take huge leaps into the unknown. I try to live this lesson every day as terrifying as it often is. Even 20 years later, those actions can still have meaningful reverberations.