Julia Stuart's The Matchmaker of Perigord is a tale of a small village in the South West of France called Amour-sur-Belle. It is so ugly even the English will not buy property there and it only has 33 inhabitants. Guillaume Ladoucette is the barber but he has few customers as many of the villagers are going bald. He decides to open a matchmaking business instead as he knows a lot of the villagers are looking for love.
The story which follows is fast paced and whimsical and includes many luscious descriptions of food as well as plenty of eccentric characters and local feuds. How the villagers find happiness and outwit the council when it forces a public shower on them because they're using too much water having baths is amusing reading. I don't think it is perhaps as good as the same author's Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo but it is still worth reading.
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