A Year in Provence Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B002KE9BWW | Format: EPUB
A Year in Provence Description
Peter Mayle and his wife had been to Provence as tourists. They had dreamed of one day trading the long, grey winters and damp summers of England for the blue skies and sunshine of the coast of southern France. And then they made it happen. They moved into an old farmhouse at the foot of the Luberon mountains and embarked on a wonderful, if at times bewildering, new life.
Among their experiences that first year: being inundated with builders and visitors, grappling with the native accent, taking part in goat races and supervising the planting of a new vineyard.
Now, Peter Mayle personally recounts the pleasures and frustrations of Proven?al life - sharing in a way no one else can, the unique and endearing culture that is Provence.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 2 hours and 52 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Abridged
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: August 3, 2009
- Language: English
- ASIN: B002KE9BWW
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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