Peter Mayle and his wife fell in love with a 200 year old farmhouse while on vacation in the rural part of France known as Provence. Once ensconced in their dream house, they set about refurbishing it and getting to know their new homeland, the beginnings of an adventure told in irresistible prose, one chapter for each month, in the charming A Year in Provence.
They eagerly join in the French passion for food and wine. They learn to interpret the very expressive hand and body language that accompanies every conversation. And they develop a strong affection for the sometimes eccentric people they meet, in particular the men hired to work on their house. The plumber plays the clarinet, and he is as likely to want to discuss music as plumbing. The pool man arrives dressed as an English gentleman, and proceeds to sit under a tree while directing his assistant in the actual work.
When Mayle and his wife decide to modernize their kitchen, the architect brings in a crew of workmen who astonish them by their fast and furious work habits, before disappearing with the work half completed. Other, more lucrative jobs had come up that had to be attended to first. When it's almost Christmas, and the house still isn't finished, Mayle's wife has an idea. She invites all of the workmen and their wives to a party, assuming the wives will be interested to see the results of their husbands' labor, and the men will be embarrassed if their work isn't finished. It succeeded.
Construction commenced again, and all came to the party, a promising end to a very good year.
If you enjoy this book, be sure to look for its sequel, Toujours Provence (Knopf, 1991).
