Jenni Ajderian

     Buddy-Comedy-Road-Movie-with-added-cathartic-death is perhaps an underpopulated genre of film. Between drunken stumblings and snap decisions to drive to Corsica, your three lead males from different corners of life have to calm down every now and then just enough to remember your lead female, tragically deceased. Don't worry, this isn't a spoiler- you'll find out as much from AlloCine 's page on the film. Point is, you might not get much more from the film itself.      Bitter and sweet are put very, very close together in this coming-of-age-slash-putting-feet-on-the-ground tale  of three friends united by their love, platonic or not, of Charlie (Mélanie Thierry), the vibrant sister-mother-lover of every Frenchman's dreams, with whose funeral the film opens. So our three musketeers Elie, Boris and Maxime (Nicolas Duvauchelle, François-Xavier Demaison, Pierre Niney) then decide to leap into a car and take the holiday they'd always planned with their fourth

Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y chante on y danse...      But only if you pay to. The bridge stretches only about a fifth of the length it used to, not even reaching the island-peninsula in the middle of the river Rhône which used to house gambling dens and all kinds of sinful endeavours. According to my ever-trusty guidebook, the original song was " Sous le pont d'Avignon "- not on, but under , describing the impatient dance of those awaiting tourists with light heads and heavy pockets.      Not quite so heavy-pocketed, we got into Avignon on one of the windiest days I've experienced in France. Our guide explained that here we're out of the shelter offered to Aix by the nearby mountains, so there will of course be more wind than we're used to (actually, because of his accent, I at first thought he said that Aix was protected from wine ( le vin ) as opposed to wind ( le vent )).      The bridge is an impressive affair, even in its slightly depleted for

     In the 50s, having a job as a secretary may have been considered modern, or even empowering, but mostly, as Rose Pamphyle (Déborah Francois) says in her job interview, it's the chance to work for an important man. Seen in this light, the rise and fall of a Speed-Typing champion is just as much to do with a woman's personal victory as it is to do with her boss' encouragement and coaching, as well as the freedom he allows her to have.      In the film, and in life, the Speed-Typing Championship probably stemmed from a cigar-fuelled "I bet my secretary types faster than yours" argument, and the exclusively female competitors inhabit a space somewhere between real sportsman(woman?)ship and simply being allowed to play. The rocky ground of post-war sexual power-play is tested with bright colours and the happy clack-clack of a typewriter, and leads us somewhere a little more patronising than first-time director Regis Roinsard may have been hoping for.      But

     There's an advent tradition here in Provence that was entirely unknown to me until a few days ago when I picked up a leaflet in town about Saint Barbe and Le Blé de l'Espérance . Today, the 4th of December, is Saint Barbe's day, and many Provencial people will have bought wheat seeds from street vendors to plant in her honour.      Sainte Barbe was around in Lebanon in the 3rd century, and according to various highly respected sources accessible via Google, was either locked in a tower to keep her away from troublesome leanings towards Christianity, or locked herself in there to get out of marrying some Prince. Either way, she managed to sneak a priest in, who gave her a good baptising, saved her soul, and really annoyed her dad.      You know how it goes with these saints: once they've sworn their faith aloud, they get a get-out-of-death-free pass, though sometimes this isn't such a blessing. Every time they re-swear their faith, God likes them that little

     It's quite appropriate that the above quote comes from none other than Desiderius Erasmus, the eponymous hero of the European exchange scheme I'm currently on.      The Book Market is in Aix only one day a month, and this was the first time I managed to make it to Place de l'Hotel de Ville at the right time. The square is full of outdoor seating for cafés still in use even in December, and on Tuesdays hosts a flower market. I think I'd prefer a romantic present from this selection though.      These French translations of Shakespearian plays are a real favourite- the tomes themselves are huge and way out of my budget, even with money from Desiderius' representatives, but they look beautiful. The translated titles alone are worth a look and a giggle. The two comedies pictured here are 'Love's Labours Lost' and 'Much Ado About Nothing'      The market itself is as typically French as you might expect- if you chat with the s