accessing fortran modules from python

[sam]

hello all,

i am currently in the process of planning a piece of software to model
polymerisation kinetics, and intend to use python for all the
high-level stuff. the number-crunching is something i would prefer to
do in fortran (which i have never used, but will learn), but i have no
experience of accessing non-python code from python. i am also fairly
new to programming period, and am therefore tackling a fairly serious
issue reletive to my experience.

how easy is it to get fortran modules running from python? if c is
easier to use in this respect, i could go in that direction instead.

i realize there is a lot of material on this subject already available,
but i am finding it difficult to make sense of, it's like trying to
take a drink from a fire hose.

any advice would be gratefully received. i will almost certainly be
coding this on windows, for what it's worth.

thank you,

sam

PS if numpy is adequate for this, i would be quite happy to use it. i
got the impression it was more for matrix algebra. i will be
programming a monte carlo simulation, which will need to perform a lot
(a lot!) of simple operations over and over...