Get It Now A Year In Provence Conceptualized By Peter Mayle Accessible Via Text

се, защо англичаните са толкова добри писатели. Ами какво друго им остава , в това лошо време , в което са принудени да живеят, освен да се научат да пишат. От собствените им разкази, освен да пишат, се разбира , че обичат доста и да си пийват.
Наистина им се възхищавам , за лекотата с която са готови , да се преместят да живеят в абсолютно непознати нови места. Не без значение е, че могат да си го позволят.
Страхотен разказвач е автора. Толкова детайлно е описано всичко, буквално имам чувството , че участвам във всичко.
Много ми харесва отношението на французите към храната , но определено не е моят стил.
Напоследък си мечтая точно за такъв начин на живот, но нищо не е същото и не знам дали някъде по света , продължават да живеят по този начин. Както живеехме и повечето от нас, в недалечното минало. Поспокойно, в разбирателство със съседи и близки, с готовност винаги да сме полезни един на друг.
Установих за французите, че когато решат да се занимават с някакъв спорт,то първото което правят е да се сдобият с екипировка като за професионалисти. Ето това е , в което си приличаме. Трудно е да се каже ,колко време ще продължи увлечението ми, но трябва да съм екипирана по всички критерии и изисквания.
Много,много приятно си прекарах в компанията на тази книга. И не малко се посмях.
Това , което научих е , че правилото на Леонардо да Винчи е да оставя улицата толкова широка,колкото са високи сградите.
Ех, защо вече никой не следва тези правила. ADORABLE is the best word for this delicious book, We have a Jerome K, Jerome type of wise humor, somewhat reconcilied with the implacable touch of fate even in the smallest details of ordinary life, the sweet "laissez faire" kind of living, accompanied with generous slices of kindness.
Perhaps Mr. Mayle is entitled to a significant royalty from the local authorities, as his writings are a pleading for tourists to visit and enjoy Provence, its places, people, customs and food.
Or shall I say cuisine, . .
Chapeau! UPDATED on reread, Feb

This is a reread and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time I read it back in.
What a delightful diversion! Mayle's account of his and his wife's first year owning a house in Provence is entertaining, relaxing and inspiring, I love the way he accepts his status as an outsider but tries to understand and join in with the local traditions, A few of these characters are definitely memorable, including his plumber Menicucci, neighbors Faustin and Henriette, and the colorful Massot, who lives alone in a ramshackle mountain cabin with his trio of vicious dogs and feels proprietary about the national forest.


As they stumble from one catastrophe to another during the remodeling of their home, they still manage to find humor in most situations almost anything is helped with another bottle of wine and enjoy life in the surrounding villages.
I loved his descriptions of the many extraordinary meals, the shops, markets and scenery, I could practically hear the bay of hounds on the hunt, smell the enticing aromas of butter, garlic and truffles, and feel the sunshine on my face.
The book inspires me to enjoy life good food, good wine and the siesta,

Ive read many more of his books since first reading this one, including a couple of his novels, There are a few that I havent read and Ill definitely add them to my TBR, and I may have to revisit some of those Ive previously read.
I will miss Mayles writing, now that he has passed away,
This is a fun book that is literally about the first year Mayle spent in his new home in Provence, The chapters are divided into months, so a reader gets to enjoy with Mayle the seasonal changes of this beautiful region of France, Mayle understands the importance of gastronomy to the French and his food descriptions are a well written part of his story,
Mayle mentions in passing, in an almost disparaging way, people of affluence buying up property in Southern France, This perspective was interesting because it says more about Mayle than it does about those other rich people, Mayle is, after all, a wealthy writer from England who is able to purchase a two century old stone house with a stone swimming pool on land that contains a vineyard, a cherry orchard, and other agricultural acreage all tended by a local farmer the tradition being that the landowner purchases the seed/vines while the farmer does the work.
The landowner gets/of the profit and the farmer gets/even though it may seem generous and not at all the tenant farming or sharecropping as we know it, it's still being a classic "Landlord".
It seems that Mayle considers himself more a part of the local population than a foreign "Lord of the Manor" type, It made me wonder what the locals really thought of Mayle and his wife,
The book is engagingly written and funny in parts filled with memorable characters, Occasionally, these characters descended to the level of caricature however, so that sometimes the story read more like "Green AcresThe Continental Version, " Stars Fantastic book, would absolutely recommend it,

There's really nothing I don't like about this book, It's short, easy to read, and such fun, sitelinkPeter Mayle, the author, writes in a charming book that,

in my opinion makes the people of Provence endearing, As an American, we often hear or rather we're aware of the stereotype how stuckup, abrasive the French are, Albeit, I have met manya Frenchperson in my day and luckily I have never had this stereotype confirmed, Sure, they're mannerisms are different but isn't that to be expected Anyway, I digress,

I enjoyed this book even more because it was relatable, I spent a significant amount of time living in a village, well more like a town, in the north of Moldova, Of course a former Soviet, Eastern European country is quite different than France but I was struck by how many similarities there are, For instance, the struggles the author and his wife faced during construction on their house , particularly the timeline is very familiar, In my Moldovan experiences, things don't run on a "city" schedule e, g. when someone says work starts at:am, it would be a miracle if that actually happened, Also, the constant advice and interaction with neighbors is similar, It's fascinating. I guess provincial life is similar across the board in Europe, or at least in these two cases, I read a couple of reviews on goodreads for this book and had to laugh at some of those who felt the book was whiney and written by a rich guy who could afford a super farmhouse with a pool no less! One review said that Mayle went back to England to live.
Well those reviews smack of small minded jealousy, Right now a farmhouse in France can be bought for as little as US,,back inbefore this became trendy, property values were even more reasonable, especially coming from England where everything was/is expensive, It was kind of like selling your million dollar house in San Francisco and moving to Iowa you could buy the entire town for the price of your modest house in California.
I dont think Mayle whined about the repairs to his house in fact, he took it lightly and with a clear dose of patience and humor.
Kudos to the Mayles to manage their money well enough to be able to enjoy the lifestyle which I dont believe it was at all over the top.

Anyhow I just had to say that,

Now for the book, I loved this book. I curled up with a glass of wine Chilean, sorry and read this in a couple of evenings, I laughed and laughed and commiserated with the Mayles, The writing is witty and the pace is excellent, Its a romp through Provence over the course of a year, Peter and his wife have left behind their lives in England to move to Provence, buy a farmhouse and settle in to a slower pace of life.
The story starts with the formidable paperwork process in buying a house, and reminded me of the process my son has gone through to rent a simple apartment in Brazil.
Frustrating to the point of being funny, Mayle goes on to beautifully describe the climate, which is so different from common knowledge again, very similar to our Brazilian experience the absolutely mouthwatering gastronomic descriptions, locals, tourists, and then the never ending quest to fix the house.
This part in particular reminded me of the time we bought a “fixerupper” right on the beach in a beautiful town in Chile, and went through so many similar situations with repairmen and guests.
At the time it drove us crazy, but now we look back at those times with a bit more fondness, In any case, Mayle brings the area to life, and does so in a light engaging way,

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