Clochemerle-les-Bains

At first the spring was just a tiny jet of water; soon it became like an arm, a thigh, then a great foaming, bubbling torrent...and the little Beaujolais village of Clochemerle was on the way to being Europe's top watering-place. The prime movers in this convulsive upheaval are tiny, dynamic Dr Suffolk and Tonio Texas, a local boy turned oil-millionaire. But all Clochemerle, willingly or unwillingly, has a role to play...The wily Senator Piéchut, the indomitable Baroness de Courtbiche and Curé Patard who sells seats in heaven to wives worried about the after-life, are just three in a sprawling, rumbustious, fornicating cast of quacks, wine-dressers, cocottes, policemen, gangsters and hypochondriacs.