The real Clochemerle is Vaux-en-Beaujolais, a picture postcard hamlet set among some of the most beautiful vineyards in France.
Interestingly, Clochemerle, is the only Beaujolais and Beaujolais Villages AOC that can bear the name of its village on the label.
« CLOCHEMERLE », the novel by Gabriel Chevallier, is based on the village of Vaux- en-Beaujolais, where the author used to spend his holidays. This cosy little village firmly rooted in its terroir at the heart of the Beaujolais-Villages vineyards thus became the center of the literary myth.
1934: The whole of France burst out laughing. In this Rablaisian chronicle, Mayor Barthelemey Piechut organises the erection of a new "pissoir" (a gentlemen's public convenience)in the centre of the small French village of Clochemerle.
As soon as it was published in 1934, Clochemerle was a huge success which has never faded since.
It is now a classic of comic literature . It has been translated into 17 languages and was made into a TV film by France 3.
It has even been adapted into an uproarious BBC television series.
