A Year In Provence with Carol Drinkwater

The actress and author shares her love of Provence in the South of France, where she has lived for the last 35 years with her husband, Michel. In the first episode they reveal how their relationship blossomed after an immediate proposal of marriage. Plus, how their lives changed when they bought a derelict olive farm near Cannes, and transformed the run-down villa into their dream home.

Michel and his nephew Marvin tackle the strenuous task of renovating and repainting the shutters, while Carol takes a boat trip on the Mediterranean to view some of the Côte d'Azur's most exclusive properties - indulging her fascination for famous people from Rita Hayworth to Winston Churchill who have frequented the coast.

Carol and her husband Michel appreciate family values with their nephew Marvin as they use his technical skills to conduct an experiment with music to encourage the plants to grow; Carol tries her hand at glassblowing in Biot, the glassware capital of France, but things don't quite go to plan.

Carol reveals some of the sources of inspiration that feed her writing, ranging from the produce on the farm to the romance of the crumbling buildings and the rugged Cote d'Azur. After Carol and Michel harvest a bumper crop of lemons from the tree in their garden, Carol is inspired to pursue her latest idea for a new novel and heads to Menton on the French Italian border. Here she meets a family of citrus growers who have been producing prized Menton lemons for the past 30 years and discovers how a royal seal of approval from Queen Victoria and her favourite donkey 'Jacquot' put Menton and the south of France firmly on the map as a tourist destination for the English aristocracy.

Inspired by the aromatic plants in her garden, Carol makes a trip to Grasse, the perfume capital of France, where she handpicks sweet and delicate jasmine flowers to create her own Appassionata fragrance. She also travels to Cagnes-sur-Mer to visit the former home of impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, where his studio is preserved as a museum.

Carol visits a third-generation baker and his family in Antibes to learn how to make a classic baguette using only flour, water, salt and yeast. Back at the farm, she and Michel get ready to bring in the olive harvest, with family and friends pulling together to painstakingly pick the olives by hand.