The ‘Castle Impossible’ Fairy Tale Has a New Chapter: A Baby!

The second episode of Castle Impossible’s second season ended on an absolutely delightful to-be-continued note: Daphne and Ian Fig, intrepid American expats and 500-year-old chateau renovators, are also parents-to-be!

After announcing their happy news in an extremely French way — that is, by tucking a copy of Daphne’s sonogram into a congratulatory card for her grandmother and presenting it during lunch on the gorgeous gatehouse patio they’d brought back to life — they sat down with HGTV for an exclusive interview to share the story of their ongoing adventure and adorable character reveal.

Seven-year-old Sabrina (who visited Daphne and Ian at the chateau in Season 2’s first episode with the girls’ dad, Thomas, pictured here) was over the moon to learn that her big sister would be having a baby — and, as a matter of fact, she could relate. “I told her and she was very, very excited,” Daphne says. “And the next time I talked to her, she was like, ‘Daphne, I have 10 babies!’ And she showed me all of her stuffed animals. And I was like, ‘That is adorable, that was me as a child.’”

Daphne and Ian’s faithful canine companion, the sweet-tempered Archaea (a Berger Blanc Suisse), has sensed that change is coming to the chateau. “I feel like she didn’t know [I was pregnant] for a very long time, and I feel like recently she’s become a little more protective of me,” Daphne says.

Ian has noticed something similar. “That’s been a new thing — she’s been protective of Daphne, but also our cats, for the weirdest reason! I think something maternal has kicked in with Archaea,” he agrees.

Daphne can’t exactly compare being pregnant in France with being pregnant in America, since this is her first child, but she can say how lovely the locals have been to her. “I’ve genuinely been really surprised by how much everybody just suddenly [started saying], ‘Oh, you should skip the line,’ and ‘Here’s a seat for the pregnant lady,’ and ‘Oh, let me help you carry that!’” she says. “There’s pregnancy parking at the grocery store parking lots? I didn’t even know that that existed until I went, and I was like, ‘Oh, I like this! I like this very much!’”

While Ian and Daphne have renovated a small nursery space near their office, there’s plenty of work yet to be done. “We’re still creating a space in our room,” Ian says. Wedding season is in full swing, after all, and they’re already juggling a packed schedule of events and non-baby-related renovations.

That said, the pull is real: “Nesting is very strong on my radar right now,” Daphne says.

Daphne and Ian have a massive hangar full of architectural salvage and antiques her grandfather collected, and some of those finds might well make their way into the baby’s spaces — with some assistance.

“We have a big chest that I was thinking we might be able to use in the nursery to set things up on, but we would have to be able to lift it into the room,” Daphne laughs, “and that feels like it might be a bit difficult at this point!”

“We do really enjoy reusing all these old materials,” Ian adds.

Castle Impossible owes its appeal in no small part to the thoughtful care Ian and Daphne take in creating and relating their own chapter of the Chateau de Lesigny’s history. That’s something they’re considering as they decide how to tell its story to their own child. “I mean, for us it’s really been like: My grandfather left the chateau for us,” Daphne explains, “and so in discovering that we’re going to be having a baby, it creates more value to everything that we do here. It’s a reason to continue, it’s a reason to try harder.”

“It’s not just for us,” Ian agrees.

“Yeah, it’s not just for us; it’s for future generations,” Daphne continues. “And I mean, it’s never just been for us, but now I want to make sure that the renovations that we do are going to last a long time, and that our kid’s going to be able to continue [them] but not have to redo our mistakes."

That’s assuming they have a child who shares their passion for this work, of course. Their enthusiasm is infectious, but who can say? “We never know: Maybe our child really doesn’t like renovating!” Ian says. “So we don’t want to force them to, [and] we don’t want them to have the burden of feeling the need to continue. I feel like what we’re doing is futureproofing a lot of that. [But] hopefully they like it!” (We at HGTV.com are prepared to predict that their child will share their enthusiasm.)

The one-of-a-kind library and mezzanine Ian and Daphne created in the Season 2 premiere is already outfitted with the beloved volume of fairy tales Daphne’s own dad read at storytime when she was a child. Which one is she especially excited about reading to her own child?

“Oh, I think all fairy tales!” she says.

“I might want to bring in some comics just to balance it out a little bit,” Ian adds. “Fairy tales are great; I just think [legendary graphic novelist] Frank Miller is a good storyteller.” [We agree, noting that Watchmen is important for babies.] “It’s a great story; I don’t know how old the baby has to be!” he jokes.

The Figs are also seeing success in their strategy of creating spaces in the chateau to diversify their business beyond the wedding-venue industry. The magnificent "new" library, for example, has already booked photo shoots.

“I think what’s really interesting about the library,” Ian says, “is that having that many books on the wall creates a really cool pattern. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that when we were designing it, but when you see it in person, it’s this pattern of books and gold lettering that reflects [the light]; it’s actually really nice.”

Daphne has fond memories of tending to Lesigny’s landscaping with her Granny when she was a girl, and she’s already excited about passing her love of tending green things to her own child.

“I hope to spend as much time in the garden as possible with our kid!” she says. “I just feel like kids learn so much from the garden. It’s a great biology lesson, and it’s a great way to learn to care for things, [and] developing empathy through that. We’ll spend a lot of time in the garden together, I’m sure!”

“Right before we came to France, you were working at an organic farm in California; that’s kind of when we were first starting to date,” Ian recalls. “I’d go visit Daphne, and it was just like, ‘Oop, that’s a lot of dirt, great!’”

“I was like, ‘Yeah, but: tomatoes!’” Daphne laughs.

Daphne’s grandmother prompted a major recent renovation, as she decided to move from Paris to Lésigny and wanted to live in the far-from-habitable gatehouse. Her contributions to Castle Impossible have been as French as the grounds themselves.

“I don’t know if they can keep it in the show, but there was a moment [in shooting those episodes] that had us dead with laughter,” Daphne says, looking at Ian.

“I mean, that is Granny,” Ian adds. “What’s been great is that we’ll let her know, ‘OK, OK, you mind if we film today?’ and she’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s fine,’ but if she gets to a point where she’s like, ‘Alright, I’m hungry!’ the film crew’s like, ‘Well … OK?’ She’s just done. It’s like, ‘And … she’s gone.’ Like, she is very strong-willed! Which is fun.”