A Year in Provence

Pick it up: If you love to read about attempts by anyone not from France to settle down in France (not easy, but well worth it, seems to be the consensus). If you want a read that will help you slow down and enjoy the little things in life. 

This book was first published in 1989, and is an account of a year in Provence, the first year that Peter Mayle and his wife Jennie, spent in their new home in the village of Menèrbes.

This was a long-held dream. Mayle and his wife used to visit every summer, soak up the heat and the sunshine, a welcome break from the grey and often wet weather in England, and dream of, one day, buying a house and moving to Provence. And then they actually did it.

The book begins in January, with Mayle and his wife on their way to a delicious lunch on New Year’s Day, surprised by the blue sky and the sunshine, and assuming that it was just going to get warmer from there. And then the frost sets in. The temperature goes down to minus six degrees centigrade, and freezing in their stone-cold farmhouse, they realise that winter in Provence is a very different thing from the summer. They need central heating. So, they call in the plumber and heating expert, Monsieur Menicucci, who is one of the many interesting characters in the book. He plays the clarinet, loves classical music, and has thoughts about many aspects of life and living that he delivers as he walks around inspecting the house.

Meanwhile the workmen that they had engaged for a kitchen remodel weeks ago, finally turn up and start taking their kitchen apart. Their lives become a mess of noise, dust and rubble. It’s a chaotic existence, but one that they manage to find a good deal of enjoyment in.  They're fond of their neighbours, they love the food and the wine, visit all the local markets and restaurants, enjoy long walks with their dogs in the hills behind their house, and learn to operate on what they call Provençal time - sitting back, taking things easy, and expecting that things will get done when they get done.

An attitude that comes in handy when their workmen disappear on them, leaving the kitchen half done, with no clear idea of when they will return. Winter turns to spring and spring turns to summer. And with summer come visitors. Friends, family, acquaintances even, who invite themselves for two weeks of free hospitality while Mayle and his wife run around providing for all of them, and waiting for tourist season to end.

And it does. Their lives are eventually restored to the tranquil routine that they've come to love. The workers come back, the kitchen is finished, the central heating is installed and the year ends with a party for all the friends they've made in this new life.

Along the way there are descriptions of incredible meals, many bottles of wine, several glasses of pastis, games of boules, days spent in the sun and in the pool, long walks under a clear, blue sky, winter nights in front of a roaring fire with a bowl of warming stew, and through all this, a feeling that time has slowed down a bit. And that in this new life it is possible for Peter and Jennie Mayle to shed their city-bred attitude to time and schedules, and to enjoy the small pleasures that each day brings.

You read about this delightful life that they've managed to make for themselves and you close the book hoping that one day that might be you - maybe not in Provence, but that wherever it is, you find your bit of heaven.