Daphne and Ian Fig Are Expecting Their First Child
In a multigenerational-move-in twist, Daphne and Ian Fig’s 500-year-old “baby,” the French property they’ve been renovating for the past five years, will have not one but two new residents.
Jean-Lionel Dias
Daphne’s been landscaping this magnificent space for as long as she can remember. “In the summertime when I would come to visit my grandparents, my grandma would always take me out here and between each wedding we would clip back the roses and make sure that everything looked fresh,” she says.
Bringing the 17th-century Chateau de Lesigny back to life has always been an act of family devotion. Daphne Fig moved to the 130-acre, Paris-area property in 2020 as its then-owner, her beloved grandfather, declined in health and could no longer manage its bookings as a wedding and photography venue. When she eventually inherited the property, her now-husband, Ian, joined her to help expand that business and supercharge the restoration projects Daphne’s grandfather hadn’t had the capacity to tackle.
Julien Faure
Daphne’s grandfather was an entrepreneur whose self-made success in the travel industry enabled him to buy the chateau in 1981.
Daphne’s cherished “Granny,” on the other hand, has had a front-row seat for (and her own very distinct opinions about) Daphne and Ian’s work. Though she and Daphne’s grandfather divorced after having two children, they remained in each other’s lives, and Daphne has formative memories of visiting them both. As a matter of fact, “it really was with me coming to France in the summertimes to come and spend time with my grandparents that they actually started spending time together again,” she recalls.
“It’s really sweet, because by the end of my grandfather’s life, they didn’t rekindle their marriage — but they had a very deep friendship. I saw my grandpa stop my grandma and tell her that he loved her, and she was like, ‘Of all the years we were married, he never told me.’"
Granny Doesn't Mince Words…
Granny’s own love language is, in part, keeping it real with the chateau’s renovations. When Ian and Daphne gave her a look at the extensive work they’d done on the hunter’s lodge — an outbuilding on the estate where they’re now living — her initial reaction was less than enthusiastic.
…And She's Moving In
"The gatehouse is a huge job and it’ll be expensive," Daphne says. "It will cost us time and money we don’t really have, but family comes first, and Granny’s happiness is our priority."
Happily, Daphne and Ian's commitment to honoring the chateau's history wherever possible eventually won Granny's approval. Their architectural-emotional relationship faced a new hurdle, however, when Granny announced that she wanted to relocate from her apartment in Paris to Lesigny's ancient gatehouse. Could they update it just enough to make it habitable for her?
With 860 square feet of living space over two stories — two rooms and a bathroom downstairs, plus two more rooms upstairs — the 400-plus-year-old building was the perfect size for a solo tenant. Daphne’s grandfather used the first floor as his office for a time, but the gatehouse has been completely abandoned for at least two decades. “The gatekeeper would ultimately decide who could enter castle grounds, and I guess that’s Granny’s job now,” Ian jokes. “I should probably stay on her good side!”
Since Daphne and Ian would be right next door in the hunter’s lodge, the gatehouse offered Granny independence and proximity to family if she needed help. “But I don’t think she realizes how much work still has to be done on that place, and I don’t know that she can afford it,” Daphne says. “I do know that we can’t.”
Tony’s Expert Take on the Gatehouse
Master craftsman Tony (right) “is our go-to contractor and our chateau-renovation Jedi master,” Ian explains. “He has absolutely become part of the family,” Daphne adds.
Daphne and Ian’s contractor, Tony, is a Real Talk dispenser after Granny’s own heart. “This is unbelievable,” he says. “I mean, look, the place is being held up by props — these ceilings and floors have got to come out. I can see all of the brickwork is just crumbling, everything is rotten, I’m waiting for one of you to laugh and say, ‘This ain’t really what we’re doing!’ [and] you’ve got another job for me.” With just four months to prepare for a springtime move-in and safety considerations that demanded a drastic rebuild, Tony led them through updates that left the building’s exterior intact but removed all of the joists between the ground and upper floors.
A Rough Reveal
Daphne and Ian budgeted $150,000 for a renovation that would create a second-floor mezzanine that featured a bedroom and bath while leaving a portion of the building open to the soaring A-frame roof they planned to reveal. Granny would contribute $120,000 of the funding, and they would cover the rest.
Granny’s mid-renovation visit to the gatehouse was a difficult one: “You’ve taken everything down, then? Walls and everything!”
“We are rebuilding a second floor there so that we can put your bed and a bathroom,” Daphne attempts to explain.
“We hadn’t done any work to [the gatehouse before,] but you could live in it and now it’s no longer habitable at all; I didn’t expect that,” Granny says. Daphne and Ian had their work cut out for them in demonstrating to her that their extensive (and expensive) renovations were justified — and outdoing themselves on the building’s exterior was their opportunity to do just that.
An Authentic (and Granny-Worthy) Exterior
“This is Granny’s house. She’s made so many efforts for me throughout my entire life that this is the way that I can give back,” Daphne explains. “Making sure that she likes what we’ve done for her is super important to me and she’s a tough lady to please.”
Tony, Ian and Daphne broke off the ugly cement-and-sand render that had refaced the gatehouse and hidden the original stonework beneath it. They painted the window frames, Dutch door and shutters a golden green that matched the trim they’d updated on the hunter’s lodge next door, and Ian re-created the ornate woodwork that had supported the relocated porch roof. “We managed to give the house a real cottage feel,” Daphne says with satisfaction. “It was a big risk uncovering the render — we didn’t know what we were going to find — but we’re so happy with the result. I even love the [revealed] brickwork of the chimney stack, it tells the story of the history of this building!”
“That’s very good,” Granny says.
Era-Appropriate Architecture
Daphne wanted to be sure Granny's feline companion felt just as welcome at the gatehouse, and she made a special modification to the patio door just for him. "I have a little treasure to show you," she says. "Oh, a little cat flap, oh Charlie will be happy!" Granny exclaims. "He’s going to be happy, my little Charlie!"
Removing the render on the gatehouse’s other faces revealed stonework at ground level and a different treatment above it, “which the French call colombage, which is a timber-framed house and then they infill with brick and stone and it’s normally rendered,” Tony explains. The render applied over the top of that render had destroyed the timber frame, so Daphne and Ian placed new green timbers atop the original render to re-create the look of the original frame. “We’re using green oak; it’s literally come straight from the tree and it’s planked at the sawmill,” Tony says. “As it dries out, it will slightly crack and shrink; it’ll silver down with the weather [and] it’ll look original.” Everything new is old again, you might say.
Prepping the Patio…
"The gatehouse was where people would give their horse to the gatehouse [attendant] and then they would take the horses to the stable," Daphne says. "They must have had horses coming through here all the time." She and Ian found an ancient bit as they renovated the space for Granny.
Daphne was intent on creating outdoor areas where her grandmother could both garden and enjoy views of the chateau. “I just really want to clean this space up for Granny [and] give her her own little garden space, you know, that she’ll really appreciate.” She and Ian also had to create a privacy fence to camouflage the propane tank that provided fuel for both the hunter’s lodge and the gatehouse.
…For Two Big Reveals
"One of the things that [had] always been important to [my grandfather] was making sure that Granny was taken care of," Daphne says. "When [he] was getting to the end of his days, I came to France to take care of him, and now it just feels like it’s time for us to start taking care of Granny."
Daphne and Ian held their breath as they introduced Granny to her brand-new patio.
“I think that you did a very, very good job and your grandfather would be very, very proud,” she says. With Granny’s seal of approval, a celebratory lunch in the patio was off to a good start — but it had a very important course coming up.
“So, Granny and Tony, we have another small surprise for you,” Daphne said when everyone was seated. “Look under your plate.”
Granny read from the card she found there with a sonogram picture: Surprise! You’re going to be a Super Granny to our little baby. Daphne was pregnant!
The Castle Impossible fairy tale just got a brand-new chapter.
“Oh, that’s so good!” Tony exclaims. “Congratulations! I’m so pleased for you!”
“It’s going to be great with the baby,” Granny says. “I’m glad I’ll get to rock this … little boy? Or this little girl?”
“We don’t know yet!” Daphne replies. “I absolutely love that our chateau family is growing; it’ll be really nice having the three generations living together.”
Tony raised a toast to Daphne, Ian, their baby and Granny’s house. Life at Lesigny was about to get even more hectic — and even more wonderful.
"I’ve always wanted to be a mom," Daphne says. "I think I was like two and a half when I started pushing around my first doll and saying that I was going to be a mother of 10! I’m not going to have 10 kids, but to finally have a baby of my own? That’s really exciting."
