Extremely Pale Rose

I just finished reading a really fun book and here's my recommendation: Go to Amazon.dot com and find Jamie Ivey's Extremely Pale Rose. Order a copy. While you're at it, see if you can find a French road atlas (I found a AAA one from 2002 for $3.25). Order that as well. When they come, tuck them both away with your summer clothes. The first time your local weatherman forecasts 75+ degree weather, go immediately to your nearby wine shop and buy the best French rose you can find....maybe one from Domaine Tempier Bandol or a Tavel. Put it in the 'frig.

On a warm Saturday afternoon when all your weekend chores are completed, bring your 'sunlounger' (as Jamie calls it) out of storage and open it up on your deck. Pour a glass of chilled rose, grab your book and atlas, pull on some shorts, and begin a 'very French adventure.' Welcome to the world of 'Extremely Pale Rose!' What a delightful book....a real quest through the vineyards of France to find the very palest rose possible. Be prepared to encounter eccentric vignerons, boules tournaments, French drink-driving roadblocks, half-naked women, and the Corsican Mafia. You can use your atlas to trace Jamie, Tanya, and Peter's route through the wine producing regions of France as they search for the very palest rose they can find. And what is the real object of their quest? Is it really rose or is it something else? What did Philippe mean when he said to Tanya and Jamie, "just remember that people on a quest only think they know what they're searching for?"

As you sip your chilled wine, imagine yourself cruising around the French countryside, hood down, living life to its French fullness. Follow the Ivey's route in your atlas and share the vicarious thrill of the hunt....for the very palest rose produced in France!