Jean Auel wins French award

Portland author Jean Auel has been named an Officer of the Order of Arts & Letters by the French Minister of Culture and Communication. Auel is the author of "The Clan of the Cave Bear" and four other novels in the Earth's Children series. The books are set in the Dordogne region of South-West France and are heavily researched novels that follow the adventures of Neaderthal and Cro-Magnon peoples. They have sold at least 34 million copies worldwide