Madame, will you Talk?

Almost 40 years ago, when I first read Mary Stewart's thriller Madame, will you Talk? I had never been to France, never mind to Provence. Avignon, Nimes and the river Rhone were simply names to me. Now, three months after returning from our fabulous holiday, I am rereading the book and enjoying descriptive references to places we visited, picturing the characters in each fresh setting.

The pages are browned in my paperback copy that I've kept all these years with a view to rereading it, and the print seems very small to my aging, bespectacled eyes. But it is nearly as good a read as the first time around (better for visualising the places; not so good for the thrills, as I did remember one crucial twist to the plot!) However, the roads along which her car chases took place remain left to my imagination. When it was written (first published in 1955), there were no motorways.

My blip is an extract with some of my Avignon holiday snaps illustrating the text. It's a good excuse to review my holiday photos and the weather for outdoor photos is, again, grey and uninspiring.