Provence from Fayence outwards

Books about Provence

Have updated the page about books set in or about Provence. Check out books in Provence.

How to survive the French

We love to hate the French - and vice versa. I read an amusing article in the Sunday Times entitled "why can’t the English be more like the French?" and the sub-heading "with the high-speed link to London about to open at last, Hortense de Monplaisir warns her fellow Parisians of the horreurs anglais that await them". I read to find an amusing satire of English mores from a Parisienne's perspective, covering London houses, Boden catalogues, an Englishman's sex life and our love of Marks and Spencer, house price conversation and "me time." Here's a few nuggets:

* It is well known that Englishmen are no good at sex. They go at it in a medieval fashion, blind drunk, ignorant and with no respect for la séduction.

* THE best shortcut to the English Look can be found in the “jolly hockey sticks” Boden mail-order catalogue. Large pale Englishmen are photographed in the country, cavorting with “good sport” girlfriends, with captions that assume the reader has no knowledge or feeling for clothes. He favours large beige trousers to house thighs like tree trunks, while she downs a pint of bitter in a lurid floral cardigan and a camisole “cut to conceal, not to reveal”.

* Documentaries show Londoners happily fleeing their homeland to hide away in some godforsaken corner of la France profonde. Can you imagine a Parisian family abandoning their apartment to begin a new life in a cottage in Wales?

And then I discovered you could buy a whole book on the subject Le Dossier: How to Survive the English!by Sarah Long. I shall buy one.

Pig in Provence

Family packs its bags and heads off to Provence. Sounds familiar? This one is written by Gorgeanne Brennan who did it and runs a Provencal cooking course (just like Patricia Wells). Or was it Carol Drinkwater? No, that was an olive farm.

Saw "A Pig in Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France" on Amazon.com - no reviews yet. Anyone care to volunteer?

Provence in Fiction

Have updated my listings of great works of fiction set in Provence and the French Riviera. Very few, it appears. A gap in the market for a budding writer, I guess.

Books about Provence

I have finally succumbed to some mild commercial pressures and am exploiting Amazon's database to present some of the best books about Provence. This includes absolutely the three best guide books, a selection of best sellers and a suite of books about provencal cuisine.

Over time, I'll be building a list of the classic works of fiction - my three for starters is hardly credible.

Holiday reads

The official Time Magazine Top 100 novels of all time list. Read them all on your next holiday in Provence. (OK - the link is tenuous).

History of Provence and the French Riviera by Jim Ring

I ummed and aahed about Jim Ring's book. I bought it a while back and a) it took me time to get round to it and b) to get into it. It's 225 pages (in hardback), well written and engaging. It never got me gripped. On balance, though, I think it's worth a read if you want a manageable, digestible socio-historical context to the Riviera, especially from a British perspective. It reads a bit like a Sunday Times article, neatly chronologically organised and with plenty of anecdotes about people we've all heard of.

You can buy Jim Ring's Riviera on Amazon

Carol Drinkwater extols virtues of the Provence cailletier olive

Ms. Drinkwater wrote two books about her purchase and restoration of an olive-yielding property outside Mougins near Cannes. We liked it and it gives a great feeling of what it's like to own all those cailletiers.

This article in the Mail highlights a few of her picks for the area.