A Year in Provence Author: Peter Mayle | Language: English | ISBN:
B003L1ZVMW | Format: EPUB
A Year in Provence Description
National Bestseller
In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures January's frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glorious regional cuisine. A Year in Provence transports us into all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo governed by seasons, not by days.
From the Trade Paperback edition.- File Size: 2084 KB
- Print Length: 220 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: B009I9RHWS
- Publisher: Vintage (May 19, 2010)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B003L1ZVMW
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,949 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #13
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Europe > France - #15
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Travel > Europe > France - #22
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Travel > Essays & Travelogues
- #13
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Europe > France - #15
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Travel > Europe > France - #22
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Travel > Essays & Travelogues
I generally abhor travelogues, but this defies the genre and isn't really a travelogue per-se anyway. It describes a destination rather than a journey. Mayle and his wife arrive in Provence with full expectations of living la dolce vita and end up embroiled in a series of catastrophes that require them to reshape their entire characters and perform some serious attitude-adjusting. The English, like their American cousins, are accustomed to time and labor operating at peak efficiency. When someone tells us a job will be done in two weeks, we expect it done in 10 days. When we listen to weather reports, we want to know how long a particular pattern will last. We don't want to be told, "Maybe two days, maybe two weeks, maybe two months." As Mayle reports, things are done a bit differently in Provence. Time operates in a different dimension. If time is even considered, it is contemplated in terms of seasons, rather than hours, days, or weeks.
Mayle's (and his wife's) adaptation to the Provencal lifestyle is sometimes painful, other times poignant and telling, but almost always extremely funny. He is a born raconteur, a master of the amusing anecdote, expert at rendering a farcical tableau.
The cast of characters of A Year in Provence are priceless. He describes them vividly and each lends color to the overall impression of les Provencals that we eventually come away with. Mayle pokes gentle fun at them and obviously has warm feelings towards them, even his fox-eating neighbor, Massot. Every inhabitant of the region has a strong opinion on a variety of subjects, and these opinions are often at odds with those of their neighbors. About the only thing everyone agrees on is the importance of food.
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