KEY POINTS:
It could only be a Havana cigar ad. The low winter sun gilding the limestone cliffs, the handsome Frenchman by my side, soft music from the CD player and the throaty wuffle from the Aston's mufflers as we slowed for another village with old men drinking strong coffee
at tables under the bare branches of the plane trees.
But hang on - add a tad more urgency to the throttle and the picture changes, those cliffs blurring past, the engine's urgent bark rebounding off walls and rocks as we charge ever onwards and upwards.
The Frenchman's braking leg is dancing a tattoo on the carpet, though his ego prevents him from asking for a more relaxed pace.
Few cars flirt with that boundary between elegant relaxation and urgency - but this is one of them.
The Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster may not be a hardcore sports car but neither is it solely a GT - a mile-eater that when the hard questions are asked prefers to look good than perform.
One reason it's so successful is that it was designed alongside the coupe released a year ago. Aston Martin has gone from selling 40 cars in 1994 to 7000 last year. It got there not just by designing beautiful cars with character but by carefully managing their release. The coupe and roadster were designed together but released a year apart.
That tandem design meant fewer changes than expected within this roadster's handsome body. It's been braced to offset the effects of lifting the roof - yet the stiffening is all but invisible.
Both coupe and roadster get bolt-on braces across the engine bay. Both use the body sills as part of the strengthening but you have to saw them in half to see where the roadster differs - with thicker metal and extra bracing within the hollow sills themselves.
The cross-car beam that mounts the dash and steering column is stronger, while the roof stowage area is stiffer than the plain boot of the coupe. Such measures add 17kg to the car, the electrically folding roof another 53kg.
As for the suspension, David King, chief engineer for the V8 Vantage and now head of product communications, says spring rates are 15 per cent stiffer than the coupe.
"We found when developing the sports pack that the roadster responded well to stiffer springs. We've completely retuned the dampers, and though the roll bars are the same we've softened the front suspension bushes a little to give more longitudinal compliance to reduce shock when hitting a bump."
King is meant to take some of the PR strain from Aston Martin head, Ulrich Bez, whose speciality is thinking up the ideas his team must develop.
"He's very intelligent, and he's always throwing out ideas half-formed," says King. "He expects us to catch them and develop them into what he'd like if he had time."
Clearly the effervescent Bez is an Aston fanatic. He acknowledges the different models look similar, but insists you drive them to feel their different flavours.
"Go to Audi or BMW - a high-end 3 Series or an entry-level 5, they'll feel the same," he says. "With us the cars have different character; the DB9 is brutal, the DBS will bring you to the edge - like in the Bond film."
And this Roadster? "Of course, it is the best car we have ever built. Until the next one, which will be the best," he grins.
"We want to be quick but smooth, sensitive to what the car gives back from the road. On this road you may even bottom out but the car sits there, always totally attached to the road."
And he's not kidding. These Provence roads were often too narrow for a centre line, skimming walls and cliffs, the tarmac holed and rippling from frost damage as we climbed above the snow line. The Roadster's ride proved impressively compliant - impressive because it clung to the tarmac like a sports car, without ever feeling as hard as one would. Better yet, there was no flex or shake to these cars.
The manual gearbox is well-matched to its engine and the car's flavour, but the $10,000 Sportshift option was the revelation.
Bez says its standard protocol is sporting, because the V8 Vantage is a sports car. Still, you expect to compromise the driving experience with an auto shift. But this Ferrari-style system is more like a clutchless manual.
The basic manual gearbox sourced from Italian company Graziano is activated via a hydraulic and electrical system from Magneti Morelli - a hydraulic system moving the clutch instead of a foot-operated pedal.
Tap that steering wheel-mounted paddle and power is briefly cut, the clutch opens, the gear shifts, the clutch closes and power surges back in - too close to conventional manual speeds to tell the difference. Downshift, and the system even blips the throttle.
The shift points vary depending on speed. Push the comfort button and response is more relaxed - or you can select auto and leave the gear changes to the car. I preferred to choose engine speed myself - not to ensure I sat at the 7000rpm at which the 283kW power peak is available, or even to keep the powerplant at 5000rpm and the 410Nm torque peak, but to hear the soundtrack.
This car's flavour is best expressed through its engine note - as intoxicating at slow engine speeds as high. Throttle off through these villages and there's the exhaust burble of an expensive launch. Put a foot up it and it howls like a wolf on heat.
Thirsty? You betcha - we saw a 24.9l/100km average that emptied the tank before lunch, but to be honest, which buyer will care? The car looks good, goes better than a topless GT should, and sounds fantastic.
The interior's a symphony of thick leather, in this example contrast-stitched in yellow; There are beautifully milled instruments and well thought-out ergonomics.
But among the frou-frou stuff there's the practical - a shelf behind each front seat for your bag, a deep cubby, a roomy boot un-hampered by roof mechanisms.
The short term seems bright for Aston - Ford's sale brining no change in either personnel or future plans. As for the distant future, raise the spectre of hybrid or diesel Astons and Bez recoils. He thinks the last petrol-driven vehicles will be sports cars.
"In 1900 the villages were full of horses, but the amount of horse muck meant they were banned - and cars took over. But racehorses survive. When cars are banned, we will still have sports cars. And Aston Martin will still be there."
That's good news for affluent petrolheads, who may pick the $285,500 V8 Vantage Roadster over the slightly stiffer $265,500 coupe, if nothing else because it brings you closer to that intoxicating soundtrack.
