In Jamie Ivey's delightful sequel to Extremely Pale Ros, he attempts what seems the impossiblerunning a successful ros bar in France. French friends laugh heartily and say its the silliest idea theyve ever heard! Why, the customers for bars are mostly men and ros is seen a womans drink; not to mention, its a seasonal drink and his trade will vanish come September! Then as if that wasnt enough, bars make their money from food, ros isnt meant to accompany food. Its flat out preposterous. But Jamie looks at the entire scheme through ros tinted glasses, and the idea proves irresistible. In spite of everything, ros sales are booming in France and the sales of reds and whites have grown stagnant. If Jamie can just find that perfect bar, in a pretty square, and chalk up a daily selection of different ross, the bar could be a great success.
In a charmingly misguided journey that takes Jamie from Aix to Uzs and from Cannes to Juan Les Pins, he visits some of the eccentric yet wise vingerons from his previous journey and discovers what the French attitude to ros really is. Are gnarled old men discarding their pastis and sipping pale ros? Is it just a myth that the French don't drink ros with food? Are the young the real reason for booming sales? Before he knows it, he has found the perfect bar hidden in the hills of the Luberon, and will do it up over the winter months. For all who enjoyed Extremely Pale Ros, and envied Jamies candidly hilarious adventures, La Vie En Ros is the perfect second glass.
