One Summer in Provence, in conversation with Carol Drinkwater

Carol Drinkwater, One Summer in Provence
(image provided by Carol Drinkwater)

I am delighted to welcome actress and writer Carol Drinkwater to the blog today. I’ve long been a fan of her writing, both her fiction books and her Olive Farm memoirs, so it is with great excitement that I can help her share her latest release, ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE. This book is set on a vineyard in the majestic Esterel region of the south of France and Carol was gracious enough to answer some questions about the characters, their vineyard and what we can expect from this book. 

A bit about Carol:

Carol Drinkwater is a multi-award winning actress and writer, possibly best known for her portrayal of Helen Herriot in the BBC’s original television series, All Creatures Great and Small.

Carol is the author of twenty-four books, both fiction and non-fiction. She has achieved bestselling status - over a million copies sold worldwide - with her much-loved quartet of memoirs set on her Olive Farm in the south of France, The Olive Farm series. 

Carol's fascination with the olive tree extended to a seventeen-month solo Mediterranean journey in search of the tree's mythical secrets. The resulting, bestselling travel books, The Olive Route and The Olive Tree, were adapted into a five-part documentary film series, which has been screened all over the world.

Carol’s novels include THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER, THE LOST GIRL which was one of LoveReading’s Books of the Year 2017.  THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF published in May 2019. AN ACT OF LOVE published early 2021.

In 2022/23, Channel 5 in the UK screened a six-part series titled CAROL DRINKWATER’S SECRET PROVENCE. It is still being screened worldwide, garnering millions of viewers internationally.

Carol’s latest novel, ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE, was published by Corvus Atlantic on 3rd July 2025.

 

One Summer in Provence by Carol Drinkwater

Depending on the time of day, may I suggest you pour yourselves a coffee or a glass of wine, then settle down in a comfy spot to enjoy a taster of summer, in a vineyard, in Provence. 

In your latest novel, One Summer in Provence, Les Roches du Soleil is the unexpected vineyard home to ex-London couple, Dominic and Celia. Can you tell us a bit more about them and how they came to be living in the south of France, making wine?

Celia spent her childhood and youth in a small town near Bristol. She left for London when she was twenty to study to become an actress at drama school. Some years later, she met Dominic when they were both working on a television play written by Dominic. They married soon after and built successful careers in the worlds of television and theatre. They lived in Primrose Hill. Had it not been for an unexpected setback in their fortunes, they would probably never have considered the move to France. Certainly, Dominic would not have uprooted. But one of Life’s twists and unforeseen changes of direction pushed them to Provence. Celia’s parents were the proprietors of a vineyard in the south of France. It was her father’s dream to own his own patch of French wine-growing territory. He was an early ex-pat, (before Peter Mayle and the wave of foreigners who headed to Provence!) After Celia’s parents had both died, she inherited the estate. The inheritance, due to the couple’s troubles in London, (which we only learn about later in the story) proved to be timely.

From just the first few chapters, I easily slipped into life on the vineyard and certainly wanted to read more about how Celia’s son turning up was going to play out. 

I am delighted to read, Jacqui, that the narrative drive of the story gripped you early on. That is so important. Thank you. Yes, the arrival of the man who claims to be Celia’s son, along with his unlikely travelling companion, does set the story rolling in new and unexpected directions.

The vineyard is in the Esterel area, with its particular red, rocky landscape. For those of us not lucky enough to be there, can you describe what is so special about this coastline for us?

As you say the earth, which is ancient volcanic land, is dark rusty-red in colour.  Gorgeous, rich. It’s really very striking. And it does make for unusual wine-growing. Like all this Med coast area, as you move inland it very quickly becomes dramatic because it is set in the foothills of the Lower Alps.

Soil is important for vine growing, does the Esterel soil make a good wine? If so, I hope you had a chilled bottle to hand to celebrate One Summer in Provence’s publication day.

This area is not one of France’s more famous and highly-esteemed regions for growing wines. However, that is slowly changing. There are some very fine wines being produced in the Var area (where this novel is set) and they are not only the famous rosés. Excellent dark ruby reds too and light crisp whites.

I find that in a well-researched novel, the setting/location becomes one of the characters, how important do you think it is to an engaging read?

Location, for me as a writer, is always an essential element. We are impacted by our surroundings. I am deeply rooted in nature and need to put my writing fingers in the soil, as it were. I was partially brought up on a farm in Ireland and so the rituals of crop production, feeding, nurturing, are in my DNA, I think. I agree with you that location can be a character in a novel. Location with some dramatic weather changes have quite an important role to play in this story.

Although vineyard life was never their plan, it seemed that there was something about life on the land and the changing seasons that spoke to Dominic and Celia. Was this a bit of south of France magic and can you relate?

Never underestimate the magic and lure of this part of the world! PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) offers myriad different faces. It can be lush and poetically beautiful; it can be stark and rugged especially further inland; it can be buzzing with life and elegance for the tourist trade. It is fecund, almost everything grows here and nature’s abundance is very attractive, almost addictive. If I were Dominic or Celia and I had inherited this lovely old vineyard, I would have stayed on too!

Carol Drinkwater on her olive farm
(image provided by Carol Drinkwater)

As you are as at home on the land in the south of France as Celia and Dominic, what is your favourite season on your olive farm?

Every season has its secrets and its gifts. These days, as the heat becomes more intense, I find that summer can be too hot for me, but there is never a day when I wish I was living in another country. France, the Côte d’Azur, is one of the loveliest places on earth. I consider myself immensely fortunate.

Can you describe a typical summers day for Celia and Dominic, to give us all a taste of life at Les Roches du Soleil?

Well, they are landowners and land workers so their days would include being out in the vineyards. Sometimes working long hours. Late summer - September - is grape harvesting season, which is a time of group activity - extra causal labour is employed to pick - and important decisions about when to pick the fruit clusters are made. There is a science to that. Communal lunches are enjoyed out in the fields, at the edge of the vineyards. I know from our own olive harvests, when we have many friends to stay to help us bring in the olives and get them to the mill for pressing, how engaged everyone becomes. It’s very exciting. Friends, or in Celia and Dom’s case, hired hands, all become invested in the outcome. The desire for the finest produce, fruits harvested with love and care. 

These are traditions that go back to the Middle East thousands of years ago.

You can’t write about France and not include delicious food and wine. Are there any of your favourite French summer dishes that make an appearance in the book?

When Celia and Dominic discuss the menu for the grand weekend party, I was salivating as I made the choices for that section of the novel. Lamb cooked over a fire outside seasoned with a generous sprinkling of freshly-grown Provençal herbs. Home-grown veggies, wines to accompany each step of the occasion, each dish. I had great fun with this part of the storytelling. Someone said to me that they gained weight just reading it!

As well as the vineyard, will we get to visit any other Provençal gems alongside Celia and Dominic?

Aside from a couple of scenes set in Cannes - I don’t want to say too much here! - the novel is predominantly centred at their vineyard.

Henri, Celia and Dominic’s gardener with his chickens, accordion and vegetable garden was one of the characters who put a smile on my face. Was there one character in the book whose story shouted louder than the others to be told?

Each character is my best friend while I am writing about them and creating them. I love Henri because he is such a gracious old man, carrying his personal sorrows with dignity and because he loves and tends bees!

What do you hope your readers will remember most at the end of the novel?

Love and family are where you find and welcome them. 

Thank you, Carol, for taking the time to answer my questions. I was hooked from the first few chapters and will be sharing my review soon. 

The novel has many twists and turns, plenty of mystery and readers are saying it is a page-turner. I hope it sweeps you away to a magical setting even if events take several unexpected turns. Please enjoy it, I loved writing this novel. It is intended as a celebration of Provence.

One Summer in Provence by Carol Drinkwater

ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE is available to buy in all good bookshops. Here are some links to Amazon for the kindle and paperback editions.

Amazon kindle 

Amazon paperback 

French Village Diaries is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk at no extra cost to you.

Carol has just completed the first leg of her book tour. She will be in both UK and Northern Ireland from September onwards. The dates and events will soon be up on her website, click here for more details. 

Book review The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey 

 

Love books? The Bordeaux Book Club is seeking new members!

 

When Leah and her husband moved to France, it was with the dream of becoming self-sufficient. But in truth, it’s not the ‘good life’ she’d imagined, as three hours of digging barely yields a single straggly carrot. Worse, her teenage daughter is acting up, and her husband seems to find every strange excuse under the hot French sun to disappear.

 

So when her friend entreats her to join the new bookclub she’s forming, Leah decides it’s something she will do for herself. The chance to make new friends, to drink a few glasses of wine, and to escape into stories that take her miles away from the life she’d thought would be her own happy-ever-after.

 

But the book club is a strange group of misfits. There’s prickly Grace, who lives alone and seems to know everybody and like no-one. Buttoned-up Monica, who says her husband is away and appears to be parenting her baby all alone. Handsome builder George, who has barely read a book before. And Alfie – who is a full two decades younger than everyone else, and is hiding a devastating secret…

 

As the stories they read begin to bring the new friends closer together, Leah is about to discover that happy-ever-afters don’t always look how you expect them to…

 

A gorgeously escapist read from the bestselling author of A Year at the French Farmhouse, perfect for fans of Veronica Henry, Jo Thomas and Fiona Valpy.

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

 

My Review

The Bordeaux Book Club is another engaging read from Gillian Harvey that I looked forward to falling into each evening. As well as the relatable characters we meet at Grace’s inaugural book club, the cameos played by the heroes and heroines of the classics they chose to read, totally ticked my book worm boxes, and had me adding a reread of some of these books to my ‘to be read’ pile.

 

The book group are a mix of ages and personalities, most of whom would never have crossed paths with each other without the initiative of Grace. Things may have begun a little awkwardly at first, but they soon appreciated the new friendships they found. This book cleverly weaves many aspects of life in France and the adjustments needed when you arrive in a new country, into a plot where friendship is at its heart. It is emotional, with the ups and downs of life changes for them all, but most especially Alfie. It is also a book about books, well-known characters and the power of the great classics and what they can teach us today. 

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

 

I can’t work out whether I was amused or horrified that I saw a little bit of me in bossy Grace, the association queen, Monica, a stay-at-home mum whose husband works away, and Leah, doing her best to juggle a veggie garden, chickens, and family life, despite the hard work and many setbacks thrown her way. I’m putting this down to Gillian’s expert eye on the British arrivals she has met over many years of living in France and nothing to do with the life I’ve carved out for myself here these last twenty years being weird enough to be a book plot….

 

Grace especially stole my heart with her wise words to the others, when they needed them most, so I thought I’d share my favourite quote here:

 

“But that’s why it’s important to have a good relationship with yourself. To be your own champion, cheerleader. To be the person who forces you to get up, to go out and try something new.” 

 

If, like me, you have devoured Gillian’s previous books (see below), or are a lover of classic authors like Bronte, Dickens or Flaubert, I am sure you will get a lot of enjoyment and entertainment by joining The Bordeaux Book Club. I know that I want to move to Bordeaux just to join Grace’s book club!

 

Previous books by Gillian Harvey:

A Month in Provence 

The French Château Escape 

One French Summer 

A Year at the French Farmhouse 

 

Purchase links

French Village Diaries is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk at no extra cost to you.

 

Amazon UK link 

 

Gillian Harvey

About the author

Internationally best-selling author of contemporary, emotionally compelling and humorous commercial fiction.

 

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The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

 

Book review The Last Day in Paris by Suzanne Kelman

The Last Day in Paris by Suzanne Kelman

The Last Day in Paris by Suzanne Kelman

 

“No, Mama, please don’t make me leave!” Sophie cries, clutching her teddy bear as her blue eyes fill with tears. “I’d rather be here in Paris with you, than far away somewhere safe…”

Paris, 1940: All over Paris, families are being pulled from their beds in the middle of the night. And ever since her husband was shot in cold blood, Brigitte Goldstein has known she is running out of time. She and her daughter Sophie are Jewish, so it won’t be long until the Nazis bang on their door.

But before she leaves, Brigitte must find her beloved husband’s painting, which was seized by the Nazis. She desperately hopes that if she saves it from destruction, then a piece of him will live on forever. And perhaps one day her daughter will uncover her father’s legacy, and the secret hidden inside…

Working in a museum under a false identity is Brigitte’s only hope. Until she meets Isabelle Valette, who confides in hushed tones that she is part of the Resistance. And when her new friend tells her of a train leaving Paris that can take children to safety, Brigitte knows her daughter must be on it, even if it breaks her heart.

But getting Sophie onto the train is dangerous. If they are caught smuggling a Jewish child out of Paris, they will be killed. And with the enemy closing in, can Brigitte get her beloved daughter to safety before it is too late?

The first utterly gripping novel in the Paris Sisters series, this is the story of two brave women and a secret that will tie them together forever, as the Second World War rages around them. Perfect for fans of Roberta Kagan, Kristin Hannah, and Fiona Valpy. 

The Last Day in Paris by Suzanne Kelman

My Review

This is an engaging dual timeline book following three women coping with life during the Occupation in Paris, as well as Esther, a struggling single mother in 2010. 

 

It was Esther and her story that I was immediately drawn to. Her mother, Sophie, was so traumatised by her early years in Paris, she never shared her family’s story with her daughter. Now suffering from dementia, Esther feared it was too late to get her mother’s help in piecing together the mystery that is suddenly thrown to her from Paris. With every trip to Paris filling her with positivity, her ex-husband’s negative behaviour threatened to engulf her once more, but the more she learned about her grandmother Brigitte’s strength and courage during the Occupation the stronger she became. It was a real pleasure seeing her evolve and flourish.

The Last Day in Paris by Suzanne Kelman

 

The Louvre, under Nazi rule, ceased to be the haven Isabelle Valette had come to love. Forced to catalogue artworks acquired by the Germans, she was determined to do all she could to save the art they were looting and destroying. Working alongside Isabelle were Brigitte and Marina. Brigitte, Esther’s grandmother, was driven to do whatever was necessary to save her husband’s greatest work of art and persevere his memory for her young daughter Sophie. A Jewish woman working among the Nazi’s, she risked her life for her mission and her story was an incredibly emotional one. Marina was used to hard knocks and had developed her own way of surviving life. She was far more mysterious than the other two, but her calculated risks posed a real danger to Isabelle and Brigitte. It was a tense and secretive atmosphere, as all three women had their own agendas and hidden pasts. All of them aware that trust in times of war was something that must be guarded and could cost you dearly. 

 

As we followed Isabelle, we got little introductions to her family life and her other sisters. We gained insights to their lives during the war and I’m looking forward to reading about the challenges faced by one of the other girls in the next book in the Paris Sisters series. I am also hoping that Esther’s story too might continue as this series plays out.

 

This is one for all of you who enjoy emotional, gritty novels set during the Occupation.

Purchase links

French Village Diaries is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk at no extra cost to you.

 

Amazon UK purchase link 

 

Suzanne Kelman

 

About the author

Suzanne Kelman is a 2015 Academy of Motion Pictures Nicholl Finalist, Multi-Award-Winning Screenwriter and a Film Producer. As well as working in film she is also an International Amazon Bestselling Fiction Author of the Southlea Bay Series – The Rejected Writers’ Book Club, Rejected Writers Take the Stage and The Rejected Writers’ Christmas Wedding. Born in the United Kingdom, she now resides in Washington State.

 

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There is also a short story from Suzanne Kelman, The Paris Orphans, that is currently available for FREE on Kindle. This prequel to The Paris Sisters series of novels, introduces us to the characters and sets the scene nicely. I started my adventure with this book, which is an incredibly moving and emotional read that stayed with me throughout The Last Day in Paris.

French-themed reading bingo

This year I’ve set myself a reading challenge bingo, with twenty-five different types of French themed books to tick off. This book nicely ticks off “A book set in Paris”.

 

French themed reading bingo challenge

Lockdown Diaries, day twenty-five, espressos and armchair travel

Espresso Day, 23rd November

Day twenty-five, Monday 23^rd November 2020

Espresso Day 

It’s Espresso Day today, but then isn’t every day, an espresso day? It certainly is chez-nous, although technically our morning coffees are probably allongés, as much as we love the hit of a decent strength black coffee, we do prefer it a bit longer than the traditional tiny shot favoured by the Italians. However, serve my daily fix in a ‘regular’ bucket (as most UK coffee shop chains seem to do) and I’ll run a mile. My perfect coffee would be served on a sunny terrace with a view, in an attractive little cup, with a sweet biscuit in the saucer. I’d also have to add a square of dark chocolate, minimum 74%, that I’d have packed in my bike bag. Once suitably caffeinated, we’d hop back on the bikes and spend the day cycling the back roads of France and enjoying the stunning scenery and sunshine.

Armchair travel 

As my face enjoyed the warmth of the sun in the garden today, the rest of me was miles away, lost in the pages of an adventure. In life there are those of us who dream and those who do. It has long been a dream for me to cross France, by bike, and La Rochelle to Geneva has been my favoured route, following in the footsteps of Susie Kelly’s solo walk Best Foot Forward. Adrian and I may seem the adventurous types and have tackled some pretty cool holidays by bike, even in this virus-challenged year, but the logistics of getting back again, means a truly epic ride across France is still only at the dream stage. 

 

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to meet Paul and Diana in the planning stages of their Susie Kelly inspired La Rochelle to Lake Geneva charity bike ride. Online at first, we met in person at the end of their second day on the road and we’ve kept in touch since. They had more barriers to overcome than we would, including needing flights to get them and their bikes to La Rochelle and home from Geneva, Paul recovering from an horrific car accident and neither of them being seasoned cyclists. However, they are doers not dreamers and with grit, determination and emotion, made their adventure real. It was a pleasure to have played a small part in their journey and an absolute delight to spend today reading through the book Paul has put together during lockdown. I really hope Naked France will be available to share soon.

 

We did manage a little escape on our bikes this afternoon, combining an essentials shopping trip to Chef Boutonne with a Living Magazine drop at the supermarket. Leaving home once Adrian had finished work for the day, we pedalled furiously in the cold air, as the colours of the sunset rapidly gave way to night. It made me feel alive and for now, trips like this will have to do to satisfy my wanderlust, but it’s not really enough. Cycling might be the perfect post-Covid-19 social-distance-ensured method of travelling, but we have never camped, by bike. The risks to staying every night in a different hotel, without the luggage capacity to pack all our own bedding and towels on the bikes, makes me uneasy. It is sobering to think that we might never be in a position to roam carefree on long distance adventures, where the only risks are cycling safely and ensuring we remain well-fuelled. I guess now is the time to spend plotting routes and planning, as well as reading about the adventures of others. 

Lockdown diaries day eighteen, guilty pleasures

Paris portraits, 1998, aged and wrinkled, like us

Day eighteen, Monday 16^th November 2020

 

Guilty pleasures

Monday morning, the sun is doing its best to shine, the kitchen smells of freshly baked cake and in a brief nod to life before Covid-19, I appear have the house to myself. There is just the reassuring hum of muted voices coming from behind closed doors to remind me that I’m not really home alone, just that the men are busy with their online worlds, in their respective dens. I am free to flit from task to task, and roam from room to room as I choose. 

 

I play that annoying game of putting the washing out, then notice the sun has been replaced with a hovering dark cloud, so bring it back in, then when the dust motes in the bedroom dance in the sunlight, I put it back out once more. I get back to rearranging my books in the bedroom, then realise the portraits we had done in Paris in 1998, (you know, the touristy sketches from the street artists in Montmartre) hidden away for too long in a dark corridor, actually look pretty good dusted off and placed on the chest of drawers. Aged and wrinkled like us, they offer a glance back to our youth and a time when France was a holiday destination not a home. 

 

There are still too many books to sort through and decisions to make on who stays and who goes. After a shelf or two, where I’d lovingly picked up so many and made promises I couldn’t keep about reading them next, I turned to my kindle and the book that was becoming increasingly difficult to put down. The characters all doing their best to hide their pasts and their real reasons for being where they are just now. Their different stories weaving through the book, emotionally charged situations and decisions made in the past that have repercussions on the future had me hooked. In one day, lives were changed forever, but who really knows the truth and who is out for revenge? Oh, I whiled away a good bit of my afternoon snowed in at a luxury chalet in the French Alps waiting for the plot to fall into place, doing my best to second guess who was who. Of course, this did mean that I wasn’t doing what I should have been doing, but there is always tomorrow to get back on track.

 

Days like today are my guilty pleasure, as I’m sure any bookworm will agree and it’s nice to break from routine every now and then. I sometimes wonder if certain things have become too routine at the moment, especially mealtimes. Without realising it Saturday night has become homemade pizza night, Sunday night, risotto, Monday, a spicy vegetable couscous, Tuesday, lasagne and Thursday, moules frites. That only leaves two nights of variety or surprise. Then again, as no two meals I serve up are exactly the same, even if I’m following a recipe, I guess it’s not too bad and I know they are all healthy and homecooked. 

 

Frugal meatballs

I think as a treat this week, to spice things up a bit, we’ll have homemade meatballs in a homemade spicy tomato sauce, served with spaghetti. Not tonight, as my late yoga class means I need a lighter meal on a Monday, but as our diet is now mainly vegetarian, contains hardly any processed foods, and is low in salt and fat, meatballs (like lazy days spent in books) are a rare treat. 

 

I tend to make them in large batches and freeze in portions, so I always keep an eye out for the short-dated burgers and sausages in the supermarket anti-waste fridges. The last batch I made were great value. Six pork and veal sausages, reduced to 1.50€ and eight pure beef burgers, reduced to 5€. Four of the burgers went straight in the freezer and four into the meatball mix with the skinned sausages, crushed garlic, homemade pumpkin and chestnut purée, a grated apple from the orchard, black pepper and piment d’espelette. 4€ of minced meat made twenty-five meatballs, which will be enough for five individual portions which works out at 0,80€ a portion. The best thing about them is that every batch I make is a different mix of meats, flavours and spices. Do you have a naughty but nice family favourite, served up for special occasions?

Nuit de la lecture (reading night) 2020

Nuit de la Lecture 2020 Sauzé-Vaussais

La Nuit de la Lecture

For the last few years I have been posting about La Nuit de la Lecture, the annual reading night event created by the French culture minister in 2017 to encourage more people to discover the fun to be had in books. The aim is to bring together readers and professionals, from authors, publishers, book shops and libraries, to share a love of books and reading. 

I usually use La Nuit de la Lecture to post my annual top ten of popular books shared on the blog, a post that will be coming later this week, because today I’d like to share some photos of our local event that took place in Sauzé-Vaussais on Saturday.

Five local libraries collaborated to put together an afternoon of cookery workshops followed by an evening of food, fun, music, poetry and readings.

Preparing the Syrian samosas

The food was an international mix of Syrian, Vietnamese and French. During the workshops a Syrian family, recently arrived in the area, shared some of the flavours of their home and how to prepare them, alongside the French preparing a Vietnamese chicken and rice salad and a retired patisserie chef demonstrating chou buns and eclairs. This part of the day certainly highlighted the positive effect of immigration and integrating new cultures into the community.

French patisserie classics

In the evening, the librarians, both salaried and volunteers, put on a show with the themes of food and sharing taking the spotlight. Before each course was served our appetites were whetted with a food-themed sketch. Readings about oysters and sushi, a humorous tale about couscous, a fable about camembert and a song about banana splits and fruit salad, were just a few of the things that entertained us as we ate the food prepared during the day.

The librarians putting on a show, Nuit de la Lecture 2020

It was obvious to those of us in the audience that everyone involved was having as good a time as we were and proved that working together as a network of local libraries has a lot to offer. Friendships and links between the libraries have been forged and I’m delighted there are plans to continue events like this in the future. 

Maybe next time I will be brave enough to take part and read aloud, in French, in front of an audience. I know the support from my friends was there, but this time it proved a little too much outside of my comfort zone. The venue wasn’t our village library, the audience came from a wider area and the team was made up of lots of people with lots of ideas and opinions. I let myself slide into the shadows rather than seek the spotlight.

Today is Blue Monday, claimed to be the most depressing day of the year, but living in a community that can pull together and put on events like this, even in the depths of winter, certainly helps to cheer the soul and lift the spirit. If you are feeling down today, pick up a book, I’m sure it will help. Here are a few suggestions of books I’ve enjoyed that all have something to make you laugh or will leave you with a nice warm glow of happiness. 

A Springtime to Remember by Lucy Coleman

A fabulous read that takes you to the heart of the gardens at Versailles. There is history, family drama, romance and mystery with a great cast of characters and superbly described setting. I'm reading this at the moment and keep looking for excuses to pick it up and jump back in.

 

Playing the Martyr by Ian Moore

This book gives us a murder, an investigating judge with an interesting past and a great cast of rural French village characters, including the British expats, the Maire, the councilors, the political undercurrents, the village bar and someone with a score to settle. Ian kept me guessing as the plot evolved and we got some snippets of French history and an expert guide around the beautiful city of Tours.

 

Susie Kelly box set

It is so difficult to pick my favourite of Susie Kelly’s humorous books on life and travel in France, luckily with this box set, you can have them all.

For more reading ideas you might like my previous posts:

Nuit de la Lecture 2018

Nuit de la Lecture 2019

Saturday snapshots in spring

The beast ready for action

Like the bugs and the bees who are beginning to reappear after a winter tucked away, I have spent my Saturday out in the garden. 

As always on a weekend there is lots of laundry to do, once Ed has unpacked his school suitcase, and the sunny, warm weather today meant I was able to dry all three wash loads outside, which always puts a smile on my face. Tomorrow we have rain forecast, so perfect weather for tackling the ironing and keeping up to speed with the domestic chores.

Today also marked my first lawn mow of the year and as always it was a gentle, high cut as the grass really won't thank you for a severe haircut this early in the season. A high cut has many other benefits including skimming over the flowering weeds that look good, smell lovely (in the case of the violas) and are providing food for the bees, as well as being a quick job as there is not too much emptying of the grass box to do. 

There was so much to see in the garden today I couldn't help taking a few pictures.

Violas whose scent fills the air

Blossom alive with bees

Daffodils in the potager

A book and a bench in the sun

Once all my work was done I took a moment to sit in the sun, listening to the birdsong and the gentle buzzing of the bees in the blossom while I read my book. I can't wait to write my review for A Chateau for Sale by Carrie Parker as it really is quite different and very cleverly written.

Homemade pizza to finish the day

My day was perfectly finished off with a homemade pizza and a glass of white wine, delicious. 

I hope you have enjoyed these snapshots from a sunny Saturday in my French village garden.