A Year in Provence

Ashlea is the eternal optimist. . .pertaining to the expansion of my reading genres, that is.  Knowing I am primarily drawn to books on theology and history, she doesn't give up in her attempts to expand my horizons. This summer we swapped books that we recently read and really enjoyed.  I loaned her Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas, and she loaned me A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle, a national bestseller in 1989.  I am halfway through the book and enjoying it immensely. With each chapter, I am living vicariously through one month of the author's first year in Provence, near the southern coast of France.  It is delightful and entertaining - just what the "doctor" ordered!  ;)

From the back cover:

"In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200 year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Luberon with his wife and two large dogs.  He endures January's frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhone Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glorious regional cuisine. A Year in Provence transports us into all the earthy pleasure of Provencal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo governed by seasons, not by days."