Following is a review written by Donlyn Lyndon, Eva Li Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Urban Design, College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley

Good adventure stories may be hard to come by these days, but forget the genre and go for this wonderful book.  Dive headlong into the mill race of this revealing account of a couple who took on restoring an abandoned mill made of stone on the very steep banks of a river in rural France.

It was from the outset an adventure beyond what most career changers manage. It was to be a year in France experiencing the place and a new language, which was seemingly less demanding than circumambulating the globe in a sailboat.