"A Year in Provence" Quotes

The cuisine is French Provençal, which is to say a pungent and earthy combination of creamy, sun-dried, tomatoey, garlic-studded, olive-oiled, fish-and-herby scents that fill the air and make the taste buds quiver with anticipation.

In the Luberon, as in all of Provence, the present is only a thin surface layer over the accumulated detritus of two thousand years of continuous habitation.

The essence of the Provençal market is conversation as much as commerce.

The game of boules is as much a part of Provence as pastis or olive oil. It's played by men and women of all ages, in village squares and on dirt lots, with much the same lack of enthusiasm that, in England, is reserved for lawn bowling.

The grape harvest is a time of almost religious significance in Provence, and it is a time of hard work.

The mistral is a wind of violence that blows from the north, and it can be as cold as it is powerful.

The lavender fields are a sight to make even the most prosaic soul feel poetic.

The Provençal sun is a seducer, coaxing the green from the ground and the most extraordinary perfumes from the flowers.

There are times, and this is one of them, when even the most mundane or irritating aspects of French life seem to have been created as part of a vast, inscrutable, and unfathomably enchanting conspiracy aimed at the heart of the English.

The Provençal climate is a gift to the soul and a constant temptation to the idle.