I'm always looking for a good audiotape to listen to during my walks. Today I started the newest Peter Mayle novel, "A Good Year". I got about 1/3 of the way through it and it's delightful.

It starts out in London, but soon moves to a vineyard in the Luberon. Like all his novels, this is light fare, liberally sprinkled with the French language as well as Mayle's funny depictions of French idiosyncracies. A fun summer book.

Anyone else read this?

I just finished reading this a couple of days ago. It was a pleasure and made me long for some time spent at a table in France with some good wine and cheese ~

Sure gets the "travel juices" flowing, doesn't it?!

LOL, definitely!
I want a housekeeper like Madame Passepartout! Croissants and coffee each morning on the patio .. sigh~

I've read too and all his other books. I met him at a reading(in Boston) of one of his books but it was so sad, it was a branch of an English bookstore that failed and most of the shelves were empty and he was the last author to appear. But to read while looking at this dismal place must have been difficult.

Just finished the book tonight and of course enjoyed it a good deal: excellent to put me in the mood for Provence next month.

Oh Underhill, that is perfect! It got me in the mood too, but no trip to Provence, weep weep.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of the townspeople at the fete~

My favorite is still the goat race in "A Year in Provence." I still hope to see one, and also the "tareaux piscine" described in "Travels with Alice."

Mine too, Underhill, I checked it out in Menerbes but no one seemed to know.

Now my favorite characters were those bicycle thieves in Hotel Pastis. Thieves they might have been, but I was rooting for them all the way!

I know that when people enjoy a certain author they want to see all the places mentioned in the books--witness the hordes of tourists devouring anything to do with the DaVinci Code, for example--but I'm content to enjoy the big picture by itself. Just going to Provence and going to Paris is enough for me. I don't need to track down "the" village or "the" church. I really like Peter Mayles' books and Provence will suit me just fine!

DLN:

The bicycling bank robbers were by far my favorites, too! I laughed all the way through that audiobook. I got a lot of sidelong glances on my walks as I sped along laughing like crazy!

I loved Hotel Pastis- I did this backwards, I read his novels first. I just finished "A Year in Provence", and the goat race definitley made me smile. Did anyone read Chasing Cezanne? Also great fun. I have to admit, I prefer his demeanor to Frances Mayes' in her series. One common element seemes to be use of the word "normal" as a pronouncement of how things will proceed from local French workers and Italin alike. I got a kick out of that. Sigh. I want to work on a little house and garden in Provence. JeanneB- who is the reader for your tape?I will have to get that book out next.

I always pictured Mr Humphreys of "Are You Being Served" as the guy in the Hotel but he's too old to have played the role today.

Our French friends/former neighbors use "C'est normal" quite a lot, and I've picked it up too. Describes the periodic episodes of forums problems quite well, I think.

ninasdream:
The "book" is read by Ben Chaplin (The Truth about Cats and Dogs, Washington Square, The Thin Red Line).

He has that lovely upper middle-class British accent. His French is also pleasant to listen to.

I was fortunate to go cycling in Provence this past May. We stayed two nights near Menerbes, where I learned that Peter Mayle has been "driven away" by the multitudes of tourists looking for his place. I'm told he now lives near Lourmarin, another charming village with a killer Friday market (we went there, too!) Must get his latest book. I've enjoyed several of them over the years.

I took "A Good Year" with me to Hawaii and did get a chapter or two read (mostly on the plane home) and enjoyed it a lot. I love his stuff, even bought the four cassette VHS tapes of a Year In Provence. He is played by John Thaw, whom I loved.

I'm a Pastis Hotel fan too, and also enjoyed Chasing Cezanne. I think I've read most everything he wrote in that vein.

Agree with not needing to find every nook and cranny mentioned in a favorite author's book, although must admit I was tempted to visit the Yorkshire Dales after reading the James Harriott books. Never did get there, however.

I enjoyed it. Oh what a dream to inherit a mas...grow the stuff!

His little book "A Dog's Life" has been one of my staple Christmas gifts for years... That book simply makes me laugh out loud.