La Vie En Rose

The concept behind Jamie Ivey's sequel to the delightful Extremely Pale Rose is to see whether it is possible to run a successful rose bar in France. French friends think it's a crazy idea. The customers will be largely men; rose is seen as a woman's drink; rose is a seasonal drink and Jamie's trade will vanish come September - and most bars make their money from food, and rose isn't supposed to accompany food.And yet, France seems to be on the brink of a rose revolution. Red and white wine sales are stagnant but rose sales are booming. If Jamie could find a small bar in a pretty square and chalk up a daily selection of different roses, then a rose bar could be a great success.What he needs to do is find the bar, and this search is the subject of the book. After a little persuasion, bars in Uzes, Aix en Provence and Nimes have agreed to help Jamie sell some rose.By working in these bars, Jamie hopes to discover what the French attitude to rose really is. Are gnarled old men discarding their pastis and sipping pale rose, is it just a myth that the French don't drink rose with food, are the young the real reason for booming sales?Jamie sets off at the beginning of June to visit some of the vignerons met in the first book on his way south. Hopefully he will buy a bar hidden in the hills of the Luberon, and do it up over the winter months. He will then try to sell enough rose during the summer to tide him over to the spring. The story of how he gets on may well become the subject of the third book.