Focuses on the people who live in north France, making fun of the region's unflattering stereotypes to reveal the warmth of the people. A post office manager in Provence is punished when his superiors reassign him north. When he hears that "north" does not mean Lyons or even Paris, he despairs. Colleagues tell him of a freezing dark place where it rains all year, people live in red-brick terrace houses and dunk Maroilles cheese in their coffee. When he arrives in Bergues, his car collides with Antoine Bailleul, a postman and carillon ringer in the town belfry. He believes that Antoine has a fractured jaw, but it is just his accent. The outsider, of course, finds that the Ch'timi have hearts of gold and are friendly to strangers, unlike Parisians or southerners.