Peter Mayle has written about England, France and America and his works have been translated into twenty two languages! Now I had not known this but I did like the cover and the title and wondered many times how this book got into my book shelf and why i had not read it. Many times it made it to my discard list and suddenly last week I got this mood to read just this kind of book, picked it off the discard pile and read it. It was well worth it.
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Peter writes about a year in Provence in France. Apparently most Britishers dream of going to France which seems to be a touristy destination and own a house there. Peter and his wife did actually buy a house in Provence and lived there. Its an old house with stone masonry and none of the new age fittings do they really spend a lot of time sprucing it up. There are incidents with neighbours who also double as service providers as they till their land, build boilers, redo the house, etc. In their delightful interactions we get a sense of the French from an insider's point of view - warm and hostile(ready to shoot if needed), friendly and stubborn (won't make way on the road), hospitable and yet suspicious. Peter and his wife wade through delightful foods and wines and stuff in their year at Provence.
Written in a witty manner and from January to December (which is a first for me), A Year in Provence really slowed down things for me as I enjoyed the French countryside along with the Mayles. Now it can go back to that pile and hopefully will regale some lost soul like me.
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