Living the French rural idyll (A Year in Provence - Peter Mayle)

Member Name: eilidhcatriona

Product:	A Year in Provence - Peter Mayle
Date:	26/07/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful imagery, writing, sense of place

Disadvantages: Its possible effect on Brits seeking the Provencal life

At some point in the late 1990s, probably when I was studying Higher French and becoming more interested in the culture and lifestyle of France, I picked up my dads copy of A Year In Provence. I was enticed by the watercolour painting of a vineyard and pretty house on the cover, and the blurb on the back promising me tales of beautiful Provence, delicious food and invasions of friends and builders.

Once I had picked the book up that first time, I didn't put it down until I was finished. I then declared to anyone that would listen that one day I was going to move to Provence and live in an old farmhouse, growing my own vines and vegetables. It hasn't happened yet. My love of A Year In Provence caused me to seek out more books about the Provencal idyll, and I also moved onto Italy as well. But Peter Mayle's book of 1989 remains, for me, the yardstick by which to measure all others.

His story takes place over a calendar year, as you might expect, with a chapter for each month. The book is not particularly long, my paperback edition is only 197 pages. It also features pictures, which I assume are also present in more recent editions (this is a 1990 edition), and which add to the story - they are sketches of the people, places and food that Mayle writes about.

The book opens when Mayle and his wife have not long moved into their 'mas', an old farmhouse built in the eighteenth century with metre thick walls to keep out the famous Mistral, located near the village of Menerbes. They had made the decision to get away from life in the fast lane, and then once they saw this house, everything happened very quickly and they soon found themselves French property owners.

Mayle's year takes us through numerous comical stories of French life. His encounters with French bureaucracy and the builders who come to work on the house are hilarious and exasperating. The Spanish may be famous for "manana, manana", but the French building and plumbing trades have perfected the art of procrastinating. The Mayles are surrounded by building equipment for months on end, with the regular assurance that work will be done tomorrow.

Not only that, but they have to cope with friends visiting from home. Now that they live in a holiday area, their friends and family seem to think their home is a ready made holiday destination. As Mayle describes the behaviour of their guests, I cringed at the stereotypes of the Brit abroad, never getting anything right.

All of Mayle's little stories are comical, but for me the real appeal of the book is the descriptions of the places, people and food. This is what made me fall in love with Provence (despite being in rainy north Scotland at the time of my first reading).

Food is, of course, a huge part of the French life. They have two hour lunches - a nightmare for those of us here who have to call France regularly. Mayle and his wife discover numerous little gems of restaurants, some of them so unlikely, and describes the meals they have at each. Every time I read this, my mouth waters. The Mediterranean diet is chock full of things I love, and Mayle's descriptions are perfect.

The Provencal landscape is stunning, and not only does Mayle describe the scenery, but the smells and sounds as well, which really brings it to life. Whether it's the majesty of the Luberon mountains, or a single almond tree, his descriptions are poetic, and I just yearn to be there.

We also meet a lot of the local residents. There are numerous tradesmen going in and out of the Mayles house throughout the whole year, a number of whom become friends - I love Monsieur Menicucci, the plumber who informs Mayle that every day in July and August, five thousand people are making 'pipi' in the sea down at St Tropez. There are also the eccentricities of Massot, their neighbour, who hates Germans. Although Mayle presents all the characters he comes across as being eccentric, it is never mocking and is done very affectionately. He clearly loves all these wonderful Provencals that he meets, and although their ways are baffling to him and to his readers, he wouldn't change them. Except possibly to speed up the builders...

Mayle's style sells Provence beautifully. He is so clearly enamoured with life there, and with the people he meets. Unfortunately, this was not necessarily a good thing. He mentions in his preface, written in late 1989 for the paperback edition, that there were rumours there was to be a property boom in the South of France in the 1990s, and that by 1992 "Provence will be firmly established as the California of Europe". While perhaps it is not quite this bad, it is true that there are many, many more holiday homes in Provence now than there were 20 years ago, and many of them are owned by Brits seeking the Provencal idyll. Consider also the huge expansion of the sub-genre of travel writing which A Year In Provence belongs to - Mayle no doubt helped inspire many and pave the way for their writing. The real Provence, as written about by Mayle, is harder to find these days.

Despite all this, A Year In Provence remains one of my favourite books. I have been reading it for about ten years now, and its charm never fades. I say reading, because I always go back to it - I have found many other travel writers I enjoy (notably Annie Hawes, whose books I also go back to again and again), but Peter Mayle is undoubtedly the king of them all, and will remain so.

This is a relaxing, and thoroughly enjoyable read, and one which I would recommend to all readers. It is elegantly written, the characters are wonderful (all the more so for being real) and the sense of place which it evokes is unparalleled.

Summary: A relaxing and captivating read which will have you packing your bags