A YEAR IN PROVENCE

Are you shivering in your shoes this December? Well, don't go to southern France, Provence in December expecting to get warm. It is cold there too. Author Peter Mayle describes Provence as being a cold country with lots of sunshine. Lots of mistrals, too: the terrifying winds verging on hurricanes that can leave you housebound for days. Month after month, from January through December, author Peter Mayle, in A YEAR IN PROVENCE, relives the first year that he and his wife spent in an old farmhouse. They coped. They renovated. They hired temperamental workmen. They learned to discriminate among olive oils, wines, breads and the region's many restaurants. Carefully underwritten is A YEAR IN PROVENCE. A masterpiece in its unique way of understated story telling. And it makes you want to experience Provence, as my wife and I did last September. *** "Understated" is not the word I would pick to describe the film/dvd of the same name based on the book and sequels. The book makes Provence magical. The movie clumsily showcases Provence as human but, as humans frequently are, as dull, self-absorbed and egotistical. Do not make my mistake of seeing the sub-par film before reading the superb book. I almost chose to skip A YEAR IN PROVENCE, the book. Thank the good Lord I did not. Enjoy! -OOO-