Return to Provence

Perhaps you know already, but, the first time I went to France was to study abroad.  I went to Avignon, located in the south of France, namely Provence.  Provence has been popular generation after generation for thousands of years for various reasons.  Written by Frédéric Mistral; painted by Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cézanne; filmed based on stories by Marcel Pagnol; inhabited by kings and popes; composed by Georges Bizet; visited by millions including Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Jefferson and Julius Caesar.  Studying in Provence, I found myself in good company.

Since then, I discovered an English writer who was seduced by Provence and abandoned his motherland to live the provençal life.  Peter Mayle has shared so much about the provincial provençal life that he learned much of the time by accident or some faux pas.  He has written books of fact and fiction that always is centered in Provence.  His non-fiction books are a fun way to learn about Provence from a foreign perspective, not necessarily the insiders view.  His first book, A Year in Provence, is a detailed adventure of moving to the rural part of Provence and being subjected to many suspicions of the natives.  

He's a favorite author of mine and I am always waiting for him to publish something new.  Some of his books I have hung onto waiting for the opportune time to revive my love of his concise and descriptive style of life, love and food of Provence.

I recently renewed my love affair with Peter Mayle's wit and accuracy of the region by picking up Chasing Cézanne, Hotel Pastis and Provence A - Z.  The first two being novels and the latter is a dictionary or manual to elements important or common in Provence.