Francis Raynaud, although always annoyed with change, doesn’t try to run the newcomers off like he typically does. In fact, Luc’s busy-body mother (played by Carrie-Anne Moss in the movie) hosts morning coffee with people from both sides of the Tannes river to encourage cultural mingling and demonstrate how open-minded she is. That’s not to say the book is shaped by a war of religions right from the start. Having spend six months with her mother in Tangier, Vianne knows Ramadan traditions and dress enough to not only not be surprised, but be more sensitive than other villagers. Lansquenet, traditionally Catholic, surprises her with its new residents. Before Vianne leaves Paris, she notes that she more frequently sees women wearing the hijab. I love that Harris always chooses a holiday season (Easter, Halloween through Christmas, now Ramadan) to shape the plot. The book begins on the first day of Ramadan in 2010, and ends on the last day of Ramadan. And the biggest change: the abandoned half of the village along the river is now populated buy hundreds of Muslim people. Josephine has a son, which Vianne didn’t know about and Roux never mentioned despite living in Lansquenet for four years before finding Vianne in Paris. Father Francis Raynaud has been replaced by another priest because he’s under suspicion of arson. Vianne and her daughters pack up and travel back the village they have not visited in so long, only to find that much has changed. Vianne wants to return Roux refuses to go. The letter states that Vianne is to return to Lansquenet, take care of Armande’s peach tree so the fruit doesn’t go to waste, and to help someone in the village who will need it. It’s been eight years since Armande’s death, yet Luc has been instructed to give Vianne a letter from his grandma upon his twenty-first birthday. But then a letter arrives from Luc Clairmont, the grandson of Vianne’s friend Armande (played by Judi Dench in the film).
Rosette, still speechless but fluent in sign language, stays with Roux all day instead of attending school. Though space is tight, Roux’s new boat has a small area for Vianne to make and sell chocolates, while Anouk continues to go to school.
Vianne, Roux, Anouk, and Rosette are living on a boat moored along the Seine. Originally published as Peaches for Monsieur le Curé and later released as Peaches for Father Francis, Joanne Harris takes readers back to Lansquenet, the quaint French village they were first introduced to in Chocolat.
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