A Year in Provence

Review UPDATED on re-read, Feb 2019

This is a re-read and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time I read it back in 2001. What a delightful diversion! Mayle's account of his and his wife's first year owning a house in Provence is entertaining, relaxing and inspiring. I love the way he accepts his status as an outsider but tries to understand and join in with the local traditions. A few of these characters are definitely memorable, including his plumber Menicucci, neighbors Faustin and Henriette, and the colorful Massot, who lives alone in a ramshackle mountain cabin with his trio of vicious dogs and feels proprietary about the national forest.

As they stumble from one catastrophe to another during the remodeling of their home, they show more still manage to find humor in most situations (almost anything is helped with another bottle of wine) and enjoy life in the surrounding villages. I loved his descriptions of the many extraordinary meals, the shops, markets and scenery. I could practically hear the bay of hounds on the hunt, smell the enticing aromas of butter, garlic and truffles, and feel the sunshine on my face. The book inspires me to enjoy life - good food, good wine and the siesta.

I’ve read many more of his books since first reading this one, including a couple of his novels. There are a few that I haven’t read and I’ll definitely add them to my TBR, and I may have to revisit some of those I’ve previously read. I will miss Mayle’s writing, now that he has passed away. show less

在十多年前的超可怕聯考K書期，總是日以繼夜埋首在那一堆堆小山般的教科書中 ---- 偶爾，我會忍受不了在書櫃上閃耀的普羅旺斯陽光，壓下罪惡感，溜出去和Peter Mayle一起在鄉間閒逛兩章節。這短短的兩章節，足以散發相當的偷悅，疏通麻痺僵硬的腦袋，讓我繼續啃下更多教科書。總合起來，整本書來回翻了不下十次，非常可能是我看過最多次的書! 直到現在，在山上看見野豬翻攪泥土的痕跡，還是會一直想到松露。

Mayle's vision of Provence is pure fantasy. It's true, the details of food and weather and habits are accurate, but it rings of 19th century English colonial patriarchy. The French "peasants" are portrayed like happy go lucky children living in a Romanticized garden of Eden uncorrupted by the real world of London and Paris. Mayle is the benevolent Patriarch in contrast to the towns cast of cartoonish personalities (it's no accident this book was adapted to a comedic TV series). If it was a novel at least there would be a plot, but instead it's a faux anthropological survey with Mayle studying the life and habits of local natives and imparting information for those back home who wish to follow his colonial ambitions (Mayle was in show more advertising). Its been said travel writing is stuck in the 19th century and this is a prime example of the genre with a modern voice. The book has been very popular - it really is very enjoyable at a certain level - but believing the fantasy and traveling there expecting a similar experience is being complicit in a form of modern day colonialism. Mayle apparently has since left Provence because the town changed - one can only imagine why.

With that said I enjoyed reading about Provence and plan to read Alphonse Daudet's Lettres de mon moulin or Letters from My Windmill published in 1869 - it is beloved in France and offers perhaps an authentic French perspective on the region just before modernization.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd show less

What fun. Picked this book up after I recently vacationed in Provence, and got a big kick out of it. Well written, and though written 20 odd years ago, holds up well. Funny lovable characters throughout, and a true love for the region comes shining through.

I love stories about people who jump out in front of life and are not afraid to be hit with the adventure of a lifetime. I can only imagine this is what happened to Peter Mayle and his wife when they decided to buy a farmhouse in Provence, in the south of France. Mayle's book, A Year in Provence is exactly that, one calendar year of living and fixing up a place to call their own in the country. Everything about this book is delightful. I love the description of a fifteen course meal that seems to go on and on. I love the stone mason who walks them through all of the different stone they are going to need all over the house.

A truly delicious feast of a book, Peter Mayle makes you want to run away to Provence right this minute. Simple, clean and vivid writing, coupled with a great heart. This guy has a wry, open-minded and elegant sense of humour along with a great eye for brush0stroke nuances that sketch an entire character for you deftly. A must-read for travel and food buffs.

“A Year In Provence” accomplishes precisely what it sets out to, which is to make you wish you lived in Provence. I’ve been to that part of France, and it’s far from the most impressive place I’ve ever visited, but Mayle makes it sound like an absolute paradise. The upper-class home renovation complaints, untranslated French terms thrown in, and the unearned sense of superiority with which he describes other visitors were a bit grating, but mostly I was just jealous that I’ll never be able to afford a vineyard house in France when I’m 48 (which is I believe how old he was when they did this, if my math is correct). The people come across as charming, the tone is light and enjoyable, and the descriptions of food are to die show more for. If you don’t walk away from this book desperate for a French meal, you don’t have a pulse. show less