Amazon.com
Who hasn't dreamed, on a mundane Monday or frowzy Friday, of chucking it all in and packing off to the south of France? Provençal cookbooks and guidebooks entice with provocatively fresh salads and azure skies, but is it really all Côtes-du-Rhône and fleur-de-lis? Author Peter Mayle answers that question with wit, warmth, and wicked candor in A Year in Provence, the chronicle of his own foray into Provençal domesticity.
Beginning, appropriately enough, on New Year's Day with a divine luncheon in a quaint restaurant, Mayle sets the scene and pits his British sensibilities against it. "We had talked about it during the long gray winters and the damp green summers," he writes, "looked with an addict's longing at photographs of village markets and vineyards, dreamed of being woken up by the sun slanting through the bedroom window." He describes in loving detail the charming, 200-year-old farmhouse at the base of the Lubéron Mountains, its thick stone walls and well-tended vines, its wine cave and wells, its shade trees and swimming pool--its lack of central heating. Indeed, not 10 pages into the book, reality comes crashing into conflict with the idyll when the Mistral, that frigid wind that ravages the Rhône valley in winter, cracks the pipes, rips tiles from the roof, and tears a window from its hinges. And that's just January.
In prose that skips along lightly, Mayle records the highlights of each month, from the aberration of snow in February and the algae-filled swimming pool of March through the tourist invasions and unpredictable renovations of the summer months to a quiet Christmas alone. Throughout the book, he paints colorful portraits of his neighbors, the Provençaux grocers and butchers and farmers who amuse, confuse, and befuddle him at every turn. A Year in Provence is part memoir, part homeowner's manual, part travelogue, and all charming fun.
From Publishers Weekly
An account of the author's first frustrating but enlightening year in Provence opens with a memorable New Year's lunch and closes with an impromptu Christmas dinner. "In nimble prose, Mayle . . . captures the humorous aspects of visits to markets, vineyards and goat races, and hunting for mushrooms," said PW. Author tour. Illustrated. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
An amusing account of an English couple's first year as residents of rural Provence, from the unpleasantness of the winter mistral to the transgressions of summer tourists. Since the old farmhouse they purchased needed repairs, they were immediately beset with problems in dealing with the foibles of local craftspeople and officialdom, not to mention the neighbors--human and animal. Nowhere in France is the consumption of food and drink taken more seriously, and food preparation, dining, and wining anecdotes are prominent in virtually every chapter. A Francophile's delight, this is a highly entertaining book which also teaches a lesson in social life and customs. Recommended for most collections. Mayle is the author of such popular books for children as Where Did I Come From and What's Happening to Me. --Ed.- Sondra Brunhumer, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., KalamazooCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times, 3/19/93
Several years ago Peter Mayle, an advertising executive, and his wife, Annie, a tax inspector, decided to leave England and move into a farmhouse in France's Luberon Valley. He had planned to write a novel. Instead, he wound up describing their getting-settled experiences in A Year in Provence, which became an international best seller. In this television adaptation, the Mayles are portrayed by John Thaw... and Lindsay Duncan. Despite occasional touches of patronization-aren't these exasperating locals terribly colorful?-the tale of mistrals, broken pipes, renovations, endless aperitifs and wonderful food will evoke warm sighs from anyone who has ever dreamed about getting away from it all. The star certainly seem to love even their temporary opportunity to do just that. The series is being presented in four two-hour episodes, each keyed to, and scheduled in, a different season.
From AudioFile
Mayle tells the story of his first year living in Provence, a time in which he and his wife come to know the place, the locals, and the wonderful food and wine, while having their house remodeled. With charm, skill, and amusement, Mayle narrates in a pleasant voice, calm and excited by turns. While he does speak some French herein, in the local accent, most of the French is rendered in accented English, a tactic that, for once, works. The production's sole annoying feature (besides making listeners hungry while listening to all the wonderful dining) is a lack of pauses to indicate changes in time frame, scene, or subject, an oversight that brings the listener up short again and again. This problem makes the slightly rushed abridgment seem jerkier than need be. W.M. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Review
"I really loved this book. Having spent several seasons in the backcountry of Provence myself, I found myself laughing in recognition of the Provencal explanation, for example, of an unusually cold winter: it was simply that the cold had all slipped down from Russia because the land had flattened between there and Provence. Then the raucous rebuilding of their house, and their plumbing, and the middle-aged plumber himself, who plays the clarinet at home, and will party of an evening, whirling his wife around the dance floor until six in the morning. The wonderful local meals Mayle describes, with pates and hams and mammoth stews, and olives, and sausages, and slabs of country bread to wipe up the sauce while cleaning the plates for the next course. It takes the friendly eye and ear of a sympathetic foreigner to penetrate and then bring alive the unique and endearing culture that is Provence. This book will give you many a chuckle when you know the country, and will certainly prepare you to enjoy it if you don't."
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