I loved this quiet book! Though stories of finding love, then disappointment, a house restoration project with great difficulty and setbacks in France (or Italy!) are so familiar - this book is in a category of its own, in my opinion. The voice of the author seems more authentic, heartfelt, affecting. Her writing style is often beautiful, spare, descriptive. Best of all - her friendship with Jeanne - will stay with me.I like Jeanne's French phrase & reminder: tu vas connaitre la misere dans la vie - the wisdom of expecting and accepting that sadness is a part of life - not a downer, but a no-nonsense, freeing awareness & perspective.

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This is a very beautiful book. Nonfiction. A young artist from Chicago goes to France, falls in love and marries a French artist and moves into a crumbing set of stone farmhouses deep in the countryside of Brittany. More than anything else, this book is about a very unlikely friendship that develops between herself and the 68 year old peasant woman who lives across the road. Jeanne tutors her in country life, watches over her, protects her, and the love that develops between them is interesting as each woman gives to the other. It's a wonderful story, and at times it's almost stranger than fiction; which of course is so often true of life.

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An easy read that will take you from America to the French countryside of Brittany. A single woman's adapting to another culture; purchase of an old farmhouse in the countryside; a love affair; marriage; birth of a daughter. Her friendship with an elderly French woman near her farmhouse show how each other can transform both of their lives. A great novel sharing cultural exchange...

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