Toujours Provence [Hardcover]

Peter Mayle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 1997

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Taking up where his beloved A Year in Provence leaves off, Peter Mayle offers us another funny, beautifully (and deliciously) evocative book about life in Provence. With tales only one who lives there could know—of finding gold coins while digging in the garden, of indulging in sumptuous feasts at truck stops—and with characters introduced with great affection and wit—the gendarme fallen from grace, the summer visitors ever trying the patience of even the most genial Provençaux, the straightforward dog "Boy"—Toujours Provence is a heart-warming portrait of a place where, if you can't quite "get away from it all," you can surely have a very good time trying.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British author Mayle shares his adventures in France's Midi in an enchanting book that stayed on PW 's hardcover bestseller list for 19 weeks. His new book, Acquired Tastes , will be published by Bantam in May.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

For fans of his A Year in Provence ( LJ 4/1/90; "Best Books of 1990," LJ 1/91), Mayle is back with more amusing tales of "la vie en rose" in the south of France. Writing with affectionate humor, he recounts such adventures as sneaking through British customs with a suitcase full of expensive truffles and digging for gold coins in his backyard with his wily and greedy neighbor. He encounters truly French eccentrics like Regis, the athlete gourmet who wears a track suit to enjoy his meals, and the ambitious Monsieur Salques, the choirmaster of the singing toads of St. Panteleon who plans to celebrate the bicentennial of the French Revolution with an amphibian rendition of the "Marseillaise." Describing a memorable 50th-birthday picnic that ends in a sudden rainstorm, Mayle conjures up hilarious images in vivid prose: "Showing through a pair of once-white, once-opaque trousers, red-lettered knickers wished us all Merry Xmas." Recommended for all travel collections.
- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (May 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517180111
• ISBN-13: 978-0517180112
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,563,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simply delightful!, January 31, 2002

By 

Kevin W. Parker (Greenbelt, MD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toujours Provence (Audio Cassette)

Now this is a book to take in the car! Mayle returns to Provence and, unconfined by his self-imposed chronological organization of A Year in Provence, which went month-by-month, produces a delightful, anecdotal account of life in his adopted country. We get to hear about singing frogs, an attempt to train a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig to hunt truffles, as well as various wine-tasting festivities, and particularly a special party for Mayle's birthday that changes his mind about picnics once and for all.

It's a delightful book, great for listening to in the car and almost certainly an entertaining light read.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pas mal, mais...., February 26, 2005

By 

Annie M. "Annie M" (Concord, NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toujours Provence (Paperback)

I knew we were in trouble when Mayle's sequel to his delightful "Year in Provence" opened with vignettes on constipation and suppositories. Oh, Mayle's fresh and breezy style is here, and he still has an eye for small but telling details, but this is mainly a retread of the same ground he worked in the much more cohesive "Year in Provence." We are told, yet again, about annoying guests, fraud in the truffle trade, and the arrogance of outsiders who are invading Provence and turning it into a playground for the rich, which is rich coming from a man who has plenty of money to finance his enviable lifestyle and quests to discover the origins of pastis!

All that said, Mayle has a talent for evoking place, and his descriptions of memorable meals will leave you salivating. But you can get all that, in better form, in A Year in Provence.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost As Good as Being There., June 13, 2002

By 

Brett Benner (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toujours Provence (Paperback)

Like Provence, Mayle continues to charm with further adventures from the land of food, wine, and sunshine. If you haven't read "A Year In Provence", I'd suggest starting with that as many of the "characters" he introduced make return visits here. Less structural than his first book, these chapters come off as varied meditations on random events that occur day to day; A birthday picnic, a new found pet,the search for gold in his backyard, and of course the various gastromical pleasures to be found throughout the region. I didn't find it quite as good as the first book, but still he has a way of making you feel like you're sitting down with an old friend.