Provence or Tuscany?

Simplistic comparison from the Sunday Times, and guess what? It's a draw. Readers will assume both are fabuluous and be none the wiser.

Here's the answer: I honeymooned in Tuscany and have a house in Provence. Draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy this excerpt: "Granted, Provence lacks Tuscany’s “painted into place” perfection. Its beauty is otherwise — of sensual light softly colouring a life lived hard for centuries. This is a land of lavender, prettily perched villages and old blokes bringing ancestral wisdom to the game of pétanque.

But such postcard slivers of reality disguise a hectic history and geography that render the region rough-edged and turbulent. The villages were, after all, perched for protection. Prettiness is a by-product.

The postcards tell little, either, about a life still dominated by farming, family ties and folk who alternate between public celebrations and bitter disputes. They also ignore pieds et paquets, the tripe-and-trotters dish with which locals stun feeble foreign digestive systems.

Provence is, in short, a proper, rooted place, not an arty summer camp for the chattering classes. Bèn-vengu. (That’s “welcome”, Provençal-wise.)"

Comments

[barbara]

I've never been to Tuscany but I love Provence.

[Linda]

I loved Tuscany but haven't been there for an extended period of time to really know it. Since I live most of the time in Provence, I am of course prejudiced. I love the light, the pace of life, the solitude and quiet, the perched villages, vineyards, food, tiny roads twisting and turning. Maybe one of these days I can spend a couple of months in Tuscany to see what it offers.

[Marci]

If Bargemon & Nice have Beckham,
I'll take Tuscany please