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Summary: Love it, love it, love it!!!
Review: I first encountered this book at my local library. I was there to do research for a high school presentation on Provence. When I ran a search this book popped up.........a quick glance let me know that it wasn't the type of research book I was looking for but I checked it out anywayz and have never looked back!!This book is absolutely fantastic. While I have read all of the other Provence books this one is by far the best. This is the kind of book that makes you want to hop on a plane and fly to France. After much dreaming and hoping I'm finally heading off to study in Paris next year. A trip to Provence is high on my list -- I hope it's as wonderful as I've been imagining! I've spent years dreaming of a picnic in Provence.
Rating:
Summary: An all time favorite!
Review: Somebody gave me this book as a gift just before I departed on a year long study abroad adventure in France. Reading the book while adjusting to life in France gave me a unique perspective and I was delighted in his acurate, comical display of daily life in France. This book makes you hungry with all the glorious food descriptions and makes you laugh until your belly hurts. Just a real fun, fast read. I have shared the book with friends and family all with rave reviews. The first (and best) of Mayle's books!
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Summary: Humans are the strangest aliens
Review: Mayle and his wife retire to a small house in Provence, and the ensuing book relates his trials and tribulations as an Englishman in a rural French setting. This is a wonderful book, full of pleasure and amusement. I kept getting ideas for science fiction from this, mainly because Mayle's descriptions of rural French life showed that humans can be as alien as any extraterrestrials. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to anyone....
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Summary: Truly, a classic travel book for all seasons
Review: Peter Mayle's "A Year In Provence" is already a classic by reputation. It must also be THE travel book to recommend to the uninitiated for not only will Mayle's incomparable wit and humour make instant converts out of you, it is guaranteed to leave you panting for more. You will want to read everything else Mayle has written as well as make a beeline for the nearest travel agent to make the French countryside if not Provence your next holiday destination. I know so for I count myself among the unashamedly smitten. Mayle's travel diary is neatly divided into twelve chapters, each corresponding with a month in the year. Quite clearly, life in Provence is never dull. Activities of its inhabitants are as varied as the climate and social custom will allow. Escaping from rainy old England, Peter and his wife eagerly adapt. How could they not, with the weather this sunny and food this excellent ? Granted, the work ethics of contract workers and the habits of French road users may take some getting used to, but net net the conditions of French country living are nothing less than idyllic. Mayle not only makes our mouths water when he waxes lyrical about every description of French country cuisine, he regales us with so many side splitting tales it is easy to lose count but impossible to forget, mostly about awful scroungers from England who descend on the Mayles expecting free board and lodging. "A Year In Provence" is such a deliriously happy and charming book it is bound to bring relief and joy even to the terminally depressed. I am also reliably informed by a friend that the Provence so picturesquely and vividly described by Mayle is as close as you can get to the real article. So, my recommendation is go buy yourself a copy, relish every word of it and head for your travel agent's.
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Summary: Provence away from Provence
Review: Not only does this book transports you to France, but it makes you imagine, feel and taste everything that Mr. Mayle describes.
And when you read the book, make sure that you have the time to day dream of your future travels to Provence...
Make sure that you continue with the series... they are great!
Rating:
Summary: Both sharp and sweet
Review: Mayle is a very sharp observer (and describer) of all the colorful life that surrounds him, but his writing is very loving, never sarcastic. He keeps smiling at the foibles and irrationalities that he describes so well. One of the best travel books!
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Summary: Perfect For When You're There
Review: Sitting in my hotel room in Arles while reading Mayles's first book was like having a second seasoned travelling companion. A must for anyone visiting the south of France, he humorously recounts his first year after purchasing a farm house in one of the more remote sections of the countryside. Less about the day to day construction, and more the characters that inhabit the region, he also describes the rich and tasteful foods, as well as change of seasons. At times very funny, the book, like Provence itself will make you long for a return visit.
Rating: 
Summary: Short breezy travel narrative
Review: This book tells the story of the author's purchase of a large country home in the south of France. His experiences during the first year are recounted chronologically January through December. I have been aware of this book for a long time but did not get around to it until my own vacation to Provence. Mayle's house is very large and has a significant plot of land around it which is farmed by a neighbor in exchange for a part of the crops (share cropper?) Mayle describes the usual colorful neighbors and workmen that are standard fare in such a book. All the old clichés are trotted out: the eccentric plumber, the tradesman who supervises his young assistant while he doesn't lift a finger, the psychotic antisocial neighbor with the ferocious dogs. There's an irritating passage where this neighbor is encountered hunting fox and a nonsensical recipe for fox stew is reproduced in its entirety! Hard working salt of the earth peasants type are duly described. There are assorted oddball visitors from back home coming unannounced and uninvited, mooching free hospitality to save hotel costs. I found his telling strangely impersonal. He does not explain how he acquired the means to purchase such a house; it evidently cost a small fortune. Nor does he explain how he came to have a year at leisure. He apparently does no work during the entire year described. His activities seem to consist entirely of eating rich meals at Michelin-starred restaurants or supervising the slow and seemingly endless restoration of his new home. His wife is mentioned often but without ever once mentioning her name or her background. I couldn't even tell from the narrative if the writer was middle aged or a senior citizen. I read this book during a trip to Provence to get a perspective that was different from tourist guidebooks. I was disappointed and felt I knew less about the region than I did after reading similar books by Frances Mayes and Eric Newby about Italy. Mayes self-centered perspective gives little insight into the region or it's people. I can't account for all the good reviews this book has received: mass hypnosis compounded by rampant me-tooism?
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Summary: Surprisingly Quick and very witty
Review: Mr. Mayle's first book is an excellent debut. His year in Provence speeds by with repairs to the house, visits to the outlying countryside, visitors (welcome and otherwise), and lazy days at home. I initially worried that I'd quickly tire of the everpreseant cast of repairmen who just can't seem to get the job done - but I was pleasantly surprised. The tone stays light, the stories don't get tired OR predictable (as is wont to happen in many travel narratives) and the author keeps the story well on the characters and not just on house fittings and tile varieties.
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Summary: Peter's Perfect Provence
Review: 'A Year in Provence' took hold of me like a catchy three minute pop song... I now have all his albums. The writing is descriptive to the point of romanticism and his tales of exploratory gastronomic expeditions, renovation calamities, liaisons with suspect and clandestine truffle dealers, quirky neighbors and French bureaucracy, all skip along to the beat of Mayle's own unassuming drum. I love the way he seems to just accept what the winds of chance blow his way and his overt good natured embrace of what elsewhere might seem to be incompetence or ineptitude. This is Provencal life seen through a pair of benign eyes with an air of casual English dignity, not pious or pompous (more like a comfortable old sock really) and with genuine and slightly comical affection for the people and way of life.
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