Short description
In this work for armchair and actual travellers alike, the author records the events of a year in Provence, from foie gras and burst pipes in January, through the Tour de France preparations, the grape vendange and the mushroom season, to the Christmas gastronomic splurge.
Long description
Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only image doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious 200-year-old farmhouse in the Luberon and began a new life. In a year that begins with a marathon lunch and continues with a host of gastronomique delights, they also survive the unexpected and often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent and enduring invasion by bumbling builders, to discovering the finer points of boules and goat-racing, all the earthly pleasures of provencal life are conjured up in this portrait.
Review
A lively month-by-month account of a British expatriate's first year in the Provencal region of southern France. When Mayle (a GQ columnist) and his wife decided to move into a 200-year-old farmhouse in the Vaucluse, they entered a world as different from London as sunshine is from rain. Entertaining visits from a plumber with a theory about everything (e.g., why Mozart would have made a formidable electrician ), inventing methods for luring elusive masons back to work (the most successful ploy: invite them and their more-conscientious wives to a champagne party), and attending a foul-smelling midsummer goat-race (as explained by an experienced bettor, An empty goat is faster then a full goat ) are just some of the diversions that became commonplace to their lives. In addition to local color, Mayle re-creates the Provencal countryside - as well as describes meal after mouthwatering meal - with a flair for seductive detail that never becomes offensively florid. And a keen eye for the eccentric - along with a good-humored ability to offer his own gaffes for entertainment - counterbalances a slightly less appealing tendency to refer to peasants and scoff at other less-genteel visitors to the region. Funny, evocative, and perceptive - Mayle's first book is a delight. (Kirkus Reviews)