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The Magic of Provence: Pleasures of Southern France
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 944.9
EAN: 9780767906821
ISBN: 0767906829
Label: Broadway
Manufacturer: Broadway
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: May 08, 2001
Publisher: Broadway
Release Date: May 08, 2001
Studio: Broadway
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Editorial Review:
Yvone Lenard's look at her beloved Provence is light-hearted, fun, loving, and sensuous - celebrating its relaxed lifestyle and the abundant pleasures of its kitchens and vineyards. Her purchase of an ancient ruin of a house in a hilltop village twenty-five years ago opened up an enchanted world, which she describes with verve, wit, and sympathy -and, as a native speaker of French, with unusual depth of understanding. Provence casts its spell on the very first morning in her charmingly restored residence when a prince bearing a jug of village-produced vin ros shows up in her kitchen. The visit provides an entre into the household of the local chateau where both she and her husband encounter flirtatious advances along with djeuner. The duchess who heads the family eventually becomes a close confidante when they share a memorable evening during a bitter cold snap, drinking tea laced with rum and making soup over the embers in Lenard's fireplace. Lenard and her husband have adventures at being chicken rustlers, dispatching graveyard ghosts, and traveling to Saint-Tropez where, "breasts are everywhere." Terry, a friend from Connecticut, locates another village ruin with the help of a spirit at a sance in Lenard's basement, restores it to perfection, and establishes a profitable bed-and-breakfast and guided tour business for antique hunters. Lilian, an unhappy Los Angeles widow to whom Lenard lends her house for a desultory visit, finds a vibrant new life in the village. Others drawn to the region, whose stories are told are Vincent van Gogh, Brigitte Bardot, and Princess Caroline of Monaco. The "magic" extends to recipes for food and drinks, along with hints for entertaining in the Provenal style, temptingly placed at the ends of chapters. Like Alice you might eat a little of this and drink a little of that and be transported to the wonderland that is the South of France.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Pretentious
The author is like my father-in-law when he describes the fish he caught: he lies about their size and the quantity, but I couldn't care less about fishing anyway.
the author is self-important and pretentious.
some of the stories were amusing, but I also had impressions that the most interesting ones weren't true. And the beginning when the author is aristocracy-struck and tries to curtsy, is laughable but not in a funny way. She comes across as simple-minded.
I mean, the ... Read More
Rating:  - Condescending and without charm.
The author's barely concealed condescention towards her Provencal neighbors is annoying enough, but her lack of any charm or distinction relaying her experiences is really a bore. Read Peter Mayle instead --or ANYONE ELSE FOR THAT MATTER,and save your money. You wouldn't want to live next door to this writer, in Provence or in Bel Air California -- her other home. Not exactly your average tourist! And oh my,the recipes! At the end of each chapter is a recipe of food vaguely mentioned in the text. ... Read More
Rating:  - Blundering onto the pages
This west-coast American has just returned from cutting an ambitious swath through France and Spain. While in Provence we took a day trip out of Aix to sightsee a random grabbag of villages on the southern slope of the Luberon range. At one particularly handsome and substantial hill village we made our way up the usual array of steep narrow streets and steps to a grand chateau that seemed in rather good, livable condition. We passed through an arched portal, under a heavy steel lattice gate operated by ... Read More
Rating: - Disgusting book
I struggled quite a distance into this book because I love France, but finally I gave up. I found the author to be a poor writer, found her stories to be so farfetched that I decided that she was not being truthful, found her values to be very superficial, found her to be describing things that were not worth reading about--e.g., the car trip to St. Tropez, and her apparent fixation on sex--e.g., her negative descriptions of the way females dress and act in St. Tropez, and her imagings about her husband's ... Read More
Rating:  - A Totally Delightful Read
The author makes the colors, flavors and warmth of Provence so vivid to the reader. I have never been to Provence but will definitely make the trip. I also will refer to this book again for the great recipes that were included and also to reread and savor the many neat stories shared by Yvone Lenard. I've given my copy away to friends just returning from the regiion to enjoy and will be purchasing another for my library.
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