A Gift from Brittany by Marjorie Price 944.1 Pri

This isn't a book that would interest everyone, but I loved it. Being a former French teacher I have traveled many times to France and Brittany is one of my favorite areas. This book is a memoir of an American who, in the 1960's, takes off on her own for Paris. She is an artist and felt she had to visit Paris in order to be a "real" artist. She thought she had enough money to last a few months. Instead she met Yves, another painter, and married him. During the next decade she lived in France. They had a daughter, but the marriage didn't work out. All of this is important in the book, but the main theme is the friendship she developed with Jeanne. Jeanne is in her sixties, dresses in the traditional black garb of the region, cannot read or write and has never left the hamlet where she lives. Marjorie and Jeanne could not be any more different from one another. Yet they manage to develop a friendship that deepens over the years and changes both women. The descriptions of the area and the country people were wonderful.