Aaah, the countryside! Fresh air, green fields, home-grown vegetables... the dream (or the nightmare) of all city-dwellers. Well, this is the tale of when it became Manu Larcenet's reality. One fine day he and his partner Mariette packed up their urban life and set off for the little village of Ravenelles (population of 89 people, including a pretty baker). When, like Manu, you've lived your whole life in a Parisian suburb, the rural life can be quite the shock to the system..."I could get lost in this stuff all day." Pipeline Comics

Manu and Mariette have immigrated to the countryside. Manu wants a vegetable garden and Mariette wants a baby. But Manu, who's celebrating with much jubilation the birth of his very first radish, is having a hard time accepting the notion of parenthood. I mean, imagine having to admit to your child that you don't know how to change the contact breakers on your car... So Manu hides himself away inside the packing boxes that seem to have become a permanent installment of their new house's decor. And don't even start on the neighbor's penchant for pesticides, and then the poster he's supposed to design for the annual pig festival...

So it's finally happened: Mariette is pregnant. And so is Manu. He's brushing up on his baby and parenthood knowledge with the help of Dr. Spock, who, Manu finds, is rather evasive regarding the torments of a father-to-be. Still, preparation is the key to success, and Manu's about as prepared as he can be: run-through's of the big day, suitcases ready and packed for the hospital, route planning. Basically, he's totally freaking out. Of course, he ends up missing the birth...

Capucine isn't sleeping at night, Ravenelles is hit with the storm of the century, M. Henri is building himself some sort of ark in preparation... and Manu seems to be suffering the strangest of visions...

Tensions are running high in Ravenelles! Manu is feeling a little fragile what with Mariette taking up her studies again, his own professional dilemmas in the mix and a young child wreaking havoc in the background. What's more, he soon finds himself on the wrong side of the mayor Adrien Coquelot in the run up to the mayoral elections, and, just to top it all off, the hermit confirms that Atlanteans do, in fact, enter unsuspecting households via catflaps...