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Summary: I love this book!
Review: What a wonderful story.... I've read it more than once. I've never been to Provence but, have always wanted to.. and I read this book again whenever I feel like going. Some parts might be confusing for someone who doesn't understand some French but that but that did not apply to me. Some parts might disgust a strict vegetarian like myself, but they didn't happen to disgust me. It's just entirely interesting, and entertaining, and you do get a good idea of the type of "neighborhood" (for lack of a better word)where this is all taking place. It's wonderful getting to know everyone in this story.
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Summary: A delicious taste of life in Provence...........
Review: An acquaintance from France said Paris was...nice..., but Provence....ahhhhhhhh, Provence. Provence is her favorite place on Earth! That prompted my interest in reading A YEAR IN PROVENCE. Peter Mayle's monthly chapters on his life in Provence are purely delightful! He and his wife decide to up and move to Provence, taking French language lessons, buying an old stone farmhouse and become the resident foreigners.
The chapters proceed month by month to describe the process of getting work done on the farmhouse(at the proper pace of Provence), the local celebrations, the bistros and bars, the amazing and under anticipated climate, the French passion for food, and most wonderfully of all, the people.
The local people of their village are so intrigueingly described that you feel you would know who they were after a few moments in their presence! He also describes the tourist population, the camping Germans, the "elite" Parisians, and the British friends and acquaintances,who want to vacation for free and show up on his doorstep.
This is a wonderfully fun and enjoyable romp in Provence through the eyes of someone with a wonderful view of the obvious, the not so obvious and quite frankly the exaggerated obvious......ahhhhhhhhhh, Provence!!!!
Rating:
Summary: An interesting account of life in Provence
Review: This is an interesting account of life as experienced by the author who goes about grasping new experiences in Provence.This well-written book is a detailed and realistic account what life has been for Peter Mayle who moved from London with his wife to a sunny new life in rural Provence in the 80s. We all must experience these happenings in Provence!
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Summary: Oui !
Review: How many times has this reviewer (and probably you dear reader), considered chucking it all and moving to a quaint two hundred year old farmhouse in the middle of a countryside French vineyard? Probably too numerous to mention. Yet, that is exactly what Peter Mayle did. He and his bride fled the damp Isle of Britain (but that too is delightful in it's own way!) and headed to Provence. And the story of that first year of their lives there is charming. It is humorous and it is downright entertaining. It is especially so if you've ever tried to deal with the people that inhabit that enchanting land. The French live and work on their own terms. They cannot be persuaded that their's is not just the best, but the ONLY way to do things. Fortunately, though, there is more than one way to skin a bear. Consider the author's saga of a major home remodeling that contractors promised would be completed by Christmas. As the festive season approached, it became apparent that, without divine intervention, the project would not be finished. Readers will die laughing when they discover how a Christmas party's invitation list was used to complete the job just in the nick of time! Such stories abound in this book. And, though it was written over a decade ago, everything is as true today as it was then. The only problem with the book is that simply reading descriptions of the gastronomical delights of the region were so well done that this reviewer gained six pounds while reading! A delightful easily read book.
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Summary: AYear In Provence.....a Lifetime of Pleasure
Review: What is there left to say about this fine,uproriously funny novel. I happened upon it when it first came out at my local library, thought it looked mildly amusing and took it home,expecting to be fairly entertained...but little more! Since that fateful day I now have my own copy (hardbound, of course), have read this book, at last count, on five seperate occassions and have given away numerous copies to friends as gifts. Obviously, I am simply a HUGE fan of Mr. Mayle's novel. But it's difficult not to be! Whether the book is accurate or not,and there's been some discussion of that, I 've found his "innocent's abroad" story funny and touching in many ways. It's a common dream that many of us have which is to run away to your own private paradise and simply live your life as you would wish. Only of course things are never that simple...especially with the Mayle's challenge of working with French beauracracy,builder's and the odd assortment of neighbor's and on-lookers. To say nothing of the occassional uninvited house guests! There's simply something here for everyone! And of course, an odd moral to their touching story, which I won't explain here...I'll let you discover on your own. So pick up a favorite bottle of wine, some Edith Piaf and sit down with this wonderful novel. Once you're hooked you'll be able to enjoy the sequel as well..."Toujour's Provence"! Bonjoir!!
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Summary: What may I have missed?
Review: I am presently reading this book in a French language edition. My French is ever-so-rusty, but I find myself laughing so much that I am about to purchase it in English -- just so I'll know whether or not I'm getting it all!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Humorous
Review: A refreshing novel of the enjoyable kind. After being disappointed by the second book by Frances Mayes, Bella Tuscany, it was wonderful to find a novelist who captured my heart and mind again. I will continue to read his other books and hopefully will not become disenchanted with any of his works, as it looks like I have many to choose from. I throughly enjoyed this light-hearted book and look forward to more. If you want a good read, and know a little French, please get this book!
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Summary: A Book About Nothing
Review: In somewhat the same manner that the former NBC television sitcom, The Jerry Seinfeld Show, was a "show about nothing", A Year In Provence is a "book about nothing". In the late 1980s, Peter Mayle and his wife move from a gray January in London to a sunny new life in rural Provence in the south of France. The book tracks the first year of their residence, month-by-month. In a typical month there's a wind storm, a delivery truck collapses into the septic tank, they purchase rugs from itinerants who arrive in a Mercedes, the neighboring farmer converts a melon patch to a vineyard and they spend lots of time shopping for food and eat a fantastic meal prepared by an 80 year old chef in a local restaurant. The only recurring story line concerns the masons, plumbers, electricians and other tradesmen who come and go throughout the year on a seemingly interminable remodeling of Mayle's 200 year old stone farm house. It may be a book about nothing, but it works. The reason it works is that any reader can identify with the author. Mayles demonstrates no particular skill in cooking, French, sports, home repair or any other activity. He never says anything very specific about the politics, art or human and natural history of Provence. Rather, he and his wife just enjoy their lives by reveling in the changing seasonal weather and light patterns, getting to know their neighbors and how they make a living, walking the dogs and looking forward to the day all the workmen's tools and building materials will disappear. In short, they're doing what any of us could do if we lived in an interesting place and took time to enjoy just being there instead of feeling we had to justify our existence by "keeping busy". By the end of the book, reflecting on how long it might take to get some help in completing a new project at his house, Mayle decides it's not important to finish it in any particular length of time: "We were beginning to think in seasons instead of days or weeks." Read this book, and then go live the life you have imagined. (My only complaint about this thoroughly delightful book is the frequent inclusion, without translation, of snatches of conversation in French.)
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Summary: Beautifully written account of one man's adaptation to place
Review: Peter Mayle, an English transplant to the region of Provence, writes a beautiful account of how he and his wife adapted to French weather, French workmen, French neighbors, and English house guests. Written with flair and a generous dose of humor while wielding a laser-tipped pen, Mayle skillfully slices open the delectable and more-often-than-not tender hearts of the people he has come to know in France's southern paradise. He eagerly goes about absorbing new experiences by immersing himself in the local "happenings" such as eating fresh-from-the-market and carefully-prepared cuisine, drinking hearty wines, dancing, harvesting grapes, and taking mushrooms to the pharmacy in order to have the pharmacist determine if they are edible or not. Mayle's zest for life and insatiable curiosity about those things unfamiliar to him imbue him with a vim and vigour many 30-year-old people lack. He also writes well. Great going!
Rating: 
Summary: Escapism Made Easy
Review: This book does its job exceedingly well -- it takes you to Provence and gives you a detailed, nuanced and realistic portrayal of what life has been like there for the writer. This book is suprisingly well written -- I say that because much travel-oriented writing is not about the writing but about the visuals, the 'picture in the reader's mind', if you will. Instead, this book will make you pause with the skilled turn of a phrase in addition to making you pause to imagine the scene he describes. His visit to an eating place that only the locals know about still resonates in my mind ... the people he describes do perhaps become characters, which is not so far from 'caricatures', I know, but the gentleness of the general mood and the unusually skilled writing craft here make this book stand out from the crowd.
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