Peter Mayle and his wife had been to Provence as tourists. They had dreamed of one day trading the long, gray winters and damp summers of England for the blue skies and sunshine of the coast of southern France. And then they made it happen. They moved into an old farmhouse at the foot of the Luberon mountains and embarked on a wonderful, if at times bewildering, new life. Among their experiences that first year: being inundated with builders and visitors,...

A sourcebook on Provence by the writer who has made the region his own. Though organized from A to Z, this is hardly a conventional work of reference. It is rather a selection of those aspects of Provence that Peter Mayle in almost twenty years there has found to be the most interesting, curious, delicious, or downright fun. In more than 170 wide-ranging entries he writes about architecture, expatriates, Aix-en-Provence, the Provençal character,...

There is a moment every morning when the countryside takes a pause. The birds stop singing, the dogs choke back their barks, and cats pause mid-stride. Everything waits. It's in this vacuum that a man working alone has the best chance of finding truffles.The plot of land was perfect, just what they'd been looking for, offering expansive views across the valley and within walking distance of the local village. There was only one small problem - there...

The author describes how she and her husband moved from cosmopolitan Paris to rural Provence after their son was born, the beginning of their adventures as culinary entrepreneurs, and their initiation into classic Provençal cuisine.

Peter Mayle writes about the unique social life and customs he has discovered while living in Provence, France.

"The beloved author Peter Mayle, champion of all things Provence, here in a final volume of all new writing, offers vivid recollections from his twenty-five years in the South of France -- lessons learned, culinary delights enjoyed, and changes observed. Twenty-five years ago, Peter Mayle and his wife, Jennie, were rained out of a planned two weeks on the Ĉôte d'Azur. In search of sunlight, they set off for Aix-en-Provence; enchanted by the world...