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Encore Provence: New Adventures in the South of France

(Provence #3)

Peter Mayle

4.01 · Rating details · 11,073 ratings · 317 reviews

A whole new feast of adventures, discoveries, hilarities, and culinary treats, liberally seasoned with a joyous mix of Gallic characters.

After trying--what folly!--to live in other places, Peter Mayle is back in his beloved Provence. He celebrates his homecoming by sharing with us a whole new feast of adventures, discoveries, hilarities, and culinary treats, liberally seas ...more

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Paperback, 240 pages

Published April 25th 2000 by Vintage (first published 1999)

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Jun 19, 2012 Kaitlyn Barrett rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel-related

This reads more like a Provence guidebook and less like a memoir. It has nice weight and heft after the insubstantial stories in Toujours Provence and has the same charming competent humorous writing style as A Year in Provence.

I liked this book because I can see his journalistic tendencies more clearly. I enjoy the way he chases down a story and the lengths to which he’ll go to follow up on interesting possibilities like the perfumery school for blind children, the processing of olive oil and ...more

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Aug 07, 2015 Madhulika Liddle rated it really liked it

Written eleven years after A Year in Provence, Encore Provence continues Peter Mayle’s fascination with this delightfully sunny corner of France. In this book, Mayle (who, if you’re unfamiliar with his Provence books, moved along with his wife from England to Provence after chucking up a career in advertising) discusses—with his inimitable sense of humour and his obvious affection for Provence and its people—all things Provence, from the people to the laws, the land and its produce, the fabulous Written eleven years after A Year in Provence, Encore Provence continues Peter Mayle’s fascination with this delightfully sunny corner of France. In this book, Mayle (who, if you’re unfamiliar with his Provence books, moved along with his wife from England to Provence after chucking up a career in advertising) discusses—with his inimitable sense of humour and his obvious affection for Provence and its people—all things Provence, from the people to the laws, the land and its produce, the fabulous food. The wine. The perfumes. The lavender, the knives.

There’s a chapter on the longevity of the average native of Provence, and how (possibly? Mayle never does find out) foie gras might contribute. There are Mayle’s observations on what comprises the ‘ideal’ Provençale village. There are fascinating, personal, and informative chapters on the selling and buying of truffles; on olives and olive oil; on the making and mixing of perfumes (not to mention what goes into developing a perfumer’s nose, and a description of a day spent at an amazing ‘school’ where blind teenagers are taught to smell). From kitchen gardens to handy (and restrained) lists of some of the best food markets, restaurants, and vineyards in Provence—Mayle covers it all.

And how. A meal at the L’Auberge de La Môle is so lovingly described, just reading it made my mouth water. There are descriptions, fleeting and occasional, of truffle omelettes, of bread dipped in fragrant olive oil, of bouillabaisse made the Marseille way.

Plus, there’s Mayle’s humour. “Let a Frenchman loose in the great outdoors, and the first thing he’ll want to do is organize it; then he will see if there are ways of eating it.” for instance, in the final chapter, which is all about kitchen gardens. And “…a London restaurant’s attempt to justify the exorbitant price of its whitebait: “The tiny fresh fish are tossed by our chef for a few fleeting seconds into a bath of boiling oil, and then removed before they have had a chance to recover from their surprise.” Anyone who suggests tossing the writer in after them has my full support.”

I began reading this book because I’ve had the bad luck to have just read a series of bad books. I was pretty certain that a Mayle Provence book would be therapeutic. It was. ...more

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Feb 21, 2014 Peter Mason rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Enjoyable, Mayle in good form. Having read his previous books some years ago it's nice to revisit the dusty roads of Provence and rekindle dormant daydreams. ...more

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Apr 14, 2009 Kristen rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: gourmets and Tuscan Sun fans

Shelves: non-fiction

For it's genre, this is a great book. I'm a big fan of books where not much has to happen. I read the first of this series, "A Year in Provence," at least five years ago and really enjoyed it. It's the French equivalent of "Under the Tuscan Sun." Stumbled across two of his follow-ups at a rummage sale at preschool and snapped them up. This book was interesting, informative, witty and even laugh-out-loud funny at times. Peter Mayle thinks a great deal about food - where it comes from, how to get ...more

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Jan 28, 2018 Arlene rated it really liked it

Oh my, give me another book by Peter Mayle please. This is a revisit to a lovely place that the author loved. Provence - truffles, vineyards, olives. Virtually meeting those lovely people who love wine, gardening and food. A place where peace and quiet still reigns.

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May 18, 2011 Helynne rated it really liked it

After I read and thoroughly enjoyed Peter Mayle’s Provence (1991) and Toujours Provence (1992), I turned my attention to other readings, not knowing that a few years later (1999) , Mayle had completed a trilogy with Encore Provence, written after he and his wife had left their home in the south of France, and moved to southern California for few years. This delightful account of how they readjusted from California back to Provençal life lives up to the spirit and cultural observations of the fi After I read and thoroughly enjoyed Peter Mayle’s Provence (1991) and Toujours Provence (1992), I turned my attention to other readings, not knowing that a few years later (1999) , Mayle had completed a trilogy with Encore Provence, written after he and his wife had left their home in the south of France, and moved to southern California for few years. This delightful account of how they readjusted from California back to Provençal life lives up to the spirit and cultural observations of the first two books, plus has the added dimension of some interesting histories—for example of the city of Marseille and the nearby Château d’If, the olive oil and pâté de foie gras industries, and the lavender fields and perfume factories of Haute Provence. Mayle begins with a few comparisons of the fast-paced California life and the “rampant informality” of Americans to the slower gait of the Provençals as well as the typically French trait of discretion. “The French, it seems to me, strike a happy balance between intimacy and reserve” (9). Mayle notes that in Provence, “Life has not accelerated, but still dawdles along keeping time with the seasons. The markets still sell real food that has escaped the modern passions for sterilizing and shrink-wrapping. The countryside is still wild, and unscarred by golf courses, themes parks, or condominiums colonies. It is still possible to listen to silence,” Mayle assures us. “Unlike so many other beautiful parts of the world, which progress and ease of access have made noisy, predictable, and bland, Provence has managed to retain its individual flavor and personality” (84). He adds, however, that the residents of Provence have a few built-in prejudices, not only regarding foreigners, but also their own countrymen from Paris. “Despite being French, [Parisians] are regarded as foreign, and therefore, to be treated with suspicion and ridicule” (70). He also rebuts with good-humored sarcasm, an article by New York Times food critic who wrote that, alas, the old Provence of good, fresh food, no longer exists. Mayle gives his own lists of the best markets, wines, olive oil, honey, bread, pastries, goat cheese, etc., still available in the area well as comfortable and affordable accommodations in private houses, restaurants, etc., “To say that you can’t eat well here is nonsense,” he persists. “To say that you need to devote some time and effort to do it quite true. But that, so I’ve always believed, is part of the appreciation and true enjoyment of good food” (52). He mentions numerous amusing quirks about the Provençal people. For example, they still tolerate the old “Turkish” toilets—i.e., nothing more than a hole in the floor—even to the point of constructing sparkling brand new ones in that style. As with everything else about which they may be asked, the usual Provençal response is simply a shrug. Finally, Mayle recalls that he was blamed after the publication of his first two books for the influx of foreigners overrunning and ruining the ambiance of this charming part of France. He assures readers again that eleven years later, not much has really changed there. “Provence is still beautiful. Vast areas of it are still wild and empty. . . . The old men still play their endless games of boules, The markets are as colorful and abundant as ever. There is room to breath. The air is clean” (226). And, as always, there is no one more than Mayle who inspires me to plan an extended trip through Provence one day. ...more

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Apr 27, 2010 Chantal rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: travel-writing, read-in-2013, non-fiction, autobiography-memoir, francophilia

I was lucky enough to read the third installment of Peter Mayle's Provence trilogy in Provence itself recently. Not exactly in The Luberon though, we were staying in the slighty busier, more touristy part of Frejus but I'm not complaining, it's a beautiful place.

As with the first two books it's like curling up with an old friend, an old witty francophile friend that causes you to laugh out loud (very possibly startling nearby sun-worshippers)and teaches you something new each time you engage wit ...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Erika rated it really liked it

Where

felt like a Dear Diary and I loved it, Encore Provence feels more like a How To and I only liked it. Encore Provence really gets more specific, and detailed, and Provence loses a lot of its magic fairyland feel, becoming more of a Real Place. A Real Place I want to visit, no doubt, but not asap. I almost wonder if Mayle did this deliberately, to discourage people like me from visiting, and messing up his magic fairyland! If so, touche. ...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Andrea rated it it was ok

I really liked the first two books. This one is so boring I could hardly get through it. Peter Mayle needs to find a new topic to write about because this one is tired. I think the difference is that in the first two books he wrote about things that happened to him, but in this book, he is doing research and trying to find stories and things to happen to him. This one is heading to the giveaway pile.

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Feb 21, 2007 Samantha Duncan rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel

Just as entertaining as his other Provence books.

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Feb 13, 2012 Cheryl rated it liked it

Love all the Peter books!

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Apr 11, 2015 Duncan rated it really liked it

A pure delight as always and a joy to reread

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Feb 19, 2019 J.H. Moncrieff rated it liked it

Another book of essays about living in Provence by Peter Mayle. Easy to read, easy to put down.

Some of the essays are really interesting, like the one about truffle growers and poachers and buyers. Some are less so, like the one about corkscrews.

I loved Mayle's first book, but this one kind of felt like he'd kept writing about Provence in order to make a living, which I completely understand, but I'd love for him to write another cohesive story rather than these collections.

As always, this book ...more

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Mar 03, 2020 Evelyn rated it really liked it

With each of the Provence books, Peter Mayle has widened the scope of his observations. The first was the most personal, dealing with his home, his wife, and friends and contractors who became friends. In this third and final instalment Peter takes us on a tour of the industry of Provence, olive groves, lavender fields, truffle markets, and other non-personal but unique topics such as longevity and various towns and villages. These studies are more substantial than those in the second book and I ...more

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Jan 24, 2013 John Nebauer rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel, food

Because living in the south of France, or Normandy, or Italy, sounds so wonderfully exotic and impossible, reading about those who have chosen to do is both wonderful and a cause for jealousy. I read A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence many years ago, and happily both continue to reside on my shelves. I borrowed Encore Provence from my workplace for some Christmas/New Year relaxation.

Written a decade after the first two volumes, the elapsed time included relocation to California. This volu Because living in the south of France, or Normandy, or Italy, sounds so wonderfully exotic and impossible, reading about those who have chosen to do is both wonderful and a cause for jealousy. I read A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence many years ago, and happily both continue to reside on my shelves. I borrowed Encore Provence from my workplace for some Christmas/New Year relaxation.

Written a decade after the first two volumes, the elapsed time included relocation to California. This volume touches on his responses to returning to his beloved Provence. His writing has improved from his first volumes (not that it was ever poor), but I was less enthralled. Perhaps it was because A Year in Provence was my first written encounter with this region, and the first cut is indeed often the deepest. It may also be that this was less of a chronicle and more of a travelogue. The first volume had a wonderful narrative structure that held the work together. There was finding a house, transforming it, adjusting to the community. In short, it chronicled the making of a home.

Nevertheless I enjoyed this immensely. There are wonderful explorations of the truffle trade, village life, food and life. One piece (Restaurant Critic Makes Astonishing Discovery), a response to an American food critic’s disappointment with Provence is perhaps overly defensive, but on the whole each piece is delightfully bucolic.

Many are also thought-provoking. Many of us in the Anglo-Saxon world know that we are too busy, and that there are more important things than work and accumulation. Still, most of us (myself included) seem unable to do anything about it. Writers like Mayle in a sense are important because they make us pause and think before we keep along our path, and because they are entertaining and not didactic, some of us at least take heed. His reflections on a transplanted London advertising executive turned Luberon wine-maker and the benefit of agricultural work makes even this brown-thumb want to take up food-growing.

Not that life in Provence is perfect. Buying a car can be a bureaucratic nightmare, and getting a tradesperson on site can be almost impossible. And the French as a whole are an enigma. How is it that a people whose diet consists of lovely fatty foods have the lowest rate of cardio-vascular disease in the western world? Some of the reason of course is portion size, and not every meal is foie gras and camembert. Perhaps it is also because, as a whole, the French (like the Italians) have discovered (or have never forgotten) that time spent over good food with good company, washed down with good wine is not one of the finer things in life. It is the finest thing in life.
...more

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Nov 02, 2008 bookyeti rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed, own, travel

You’ve got Mayle!

Peter Mayle’s “Encore Provence” …the third novel in his Provence series. His books are always great fun; reading them is like going on vacation. In this installment of the series, Mayle (an Englishman by birth) writes about returning to Provence after a four year absence, when he and wife moved back to England. The novel - so vivid and rich in its explanation of the smallest detail of life in Provence - makes one yearn to be transplanted to that picturesque landscape.

The charac ...more

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Jun 01, 2014 Em rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: travelogue

After perusing I find it is seven years since I read a bit of Peter Mayle during my summer vacation. That’s the best way to read Mayle, basking in the sun, alongside shimmering water. I read the chapter about food in Provence over a lunch of cold grilled/smoked chicken with salsa and chilled sliced tomatoes, it was delicious both prose and meal. My other fond passages were the ‘Unsolved Murder of the Handsome Butcher’, ‘Curious Reasons for Liking Provence’, ‘Eight Ways to Spend a Summer Afternoo ...more

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Oct 17, 2015 Moody Kitty rated it really liked it

These are some new stories after the author returned to Provence after several years in America. To my surprise, there is reference to Ruth Reichl of the New York Times (not a very pleasant impression from Ruth though), it's interesting because I'm a fan of Ruth Reichl's books too (but I only remember that fling in Paris :/)
This book has many charming moments but like Toujours Provence, it's not tightly bound around a timeline in A Year in Provence. The first book sounds more like "an adventure" ...more

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Jul 11, 2008 Melinda rated it really liked it

Peter Mayle delivers again. I just read this on my South of France vacation and enjoyed it immensely. I'd already read "A Year in Provence" and "Toujours Provence" and I recommend reading those first. They are light reads, but highly entertaining, and Mayle has a knack for nailing the Provencial lifestyle. Numerous times as I was reading it, it seemed as though he were describing a situation I'd just encountered. Best read during or after a trip to Southern France. ...more

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Apr 21, 2011 E rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I thoroughly enjoyed Mayle's A Day in Provence and Toujours Provence which I read several years ago. Encore Provence was just as good. It's about Mayle's experiences living in Provence (he's an Englishman). This one was written 10 years after the second book. This was written 12 years ago, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he describes. He has a delightful way of explaining his life and escapades in Provence. It's like you're sitting with him as he discusses them. Entertaining. ...more

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Jun 02, 2014 Kathy rated it liked it

A nice visit back to what we read in A Year in Province. Mayle still has a keen eye and sense of kind humor to the residents of Province and I find his writing interesting and honest. There will be some call backs to the first book in this series, but it reads much better than the second book, Toujours Provence. If you enjoyed A Year in Province, I would recommend skipping Toujours and going straight to this one.

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Sep 06, 2014 David rated it really liked it

This isn't what I feel is Mayle's best in his examinations on Provence, but it's still one of the better ones. Much of what he talks about here is stuff he's covered before, though from a period of absence. Still, like in the others I like best, he follows where the whims take him as opposed to trying to make things fit too much of a structure. It works better for me and I think it suits the material more. I certainly enjoyed reading. ...more

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Jan 01, 2015 Jo Anne rated it really liked it

IF you are a travel buff and/or a gourmand (of the armchair type) than Encore Provence is for you. Peter Mayle has a gentle, friendly writing style, and a deep love and respect for his subject. I'm not a foodie; wine and truffles are not for me, but just reading about them make me feel well traveled and well fed.

Couple this book with Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun (book AND movie) and travel to wonderful places, with no lines at the airport. ...more

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Jan 12, 2017 Annie rated it liked it

The final book in the series written after being absent for a few years. Lovely fun read with lots of trivial but interesting info on Provence. I might have never known about the school for blind children started by L'Occitane or that the best corkscrews in the world are made by Langiuole the French knife makers, or that juniper wood is a natural moth and insect repellent. I am looking forward to moving on to his novels next. ...more

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Apr 04, 2018 Marilyn Bushman-Carlton rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys travel essays, as opposed to tour guides, and good writing.

Recommended to Marilyn by: Alisa Carlton

I'm taking a trip to Provence and wanted to read about it before going. My daughter had given me Mayle's books awhile ago. I read the first one then, and just finished the second one. Mayle is an excellent writer, and I like how he gets to the nuts of bolts of the French mindset. I recommend his books. ...more

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Aug 09, 2018 Rachel C. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, length-short, subj-travel, subj-food-drink

Revisiting familiar subjects: boules, French cars, olive oil, truffles, delicious meals.

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Dec 31, 2019 Sean rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel

A different format than A Year In Provence - fine with me - each chapter highlights a different aspect of Provencal life or culture. Mayle convincingly portrays a place at once sophisticated and rustic. He's found his slice of heaven in a relaxed lifestyle. You may end up firing up airbnb or vrbo like I did, just to see the area he's talking about. ...more

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May 22, 2019 Polly rated it liked it

Shelves: adult, biography-memoir

Scrappy—not in any sense a connected narrative, but still lovely in its way.

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Feb 06, 2021 Olga_evstifeeva rated it really liked it

Another comforting read. I liked it more than Toujours Provence, almost as good as the first one.

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Feb 25, 2020 To Read List rated it liked it

“It’s lovely—it’s like a warm day in the country… but it’s not gonna change your life.” – Episode 30, A YEAR IN PACHINKO
http://thetoreadlistpodcast.libsyn.co...
...more

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About Peter Mayle

Peter Mayle

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Peter Mayle (born June 14, 1939, in Brighton) was a British author famous for his series of books detailing life in Provence, France. He spent fifteen years in advertising before leaving the business in 1975 to write educational books, including a series on sex education for children and young people. In 1989, A Year in Provence was published and became an international bestseller. His books have ...more

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“The French, it seems to me, strike a happy balance between intimacy and reserve. Some of this must be helped by the language, which lends itself to graceful expression even when dealing with fairly basic subjects.... And there's that famously elegant subtitle from a classic Western.
COWBOY: "Gimme a shot of red-eye."
SUBTITLE: "Un Dubonnet, s'il vous plait."
No wonder French was the language of diplomacy for all those years.” — 3 likes

“I have a terrible weakness for collecting snatches of other people's conversations, and occasionally I'm rewarded with unusual fragments of knowledge. My favorite of the day came from a large but shapely woman sitting nearby whom I learned was the owner of a local lingerie shop. 'Beh oui,' she said to her companion, waving her spoon for emphasis, 'il faut du temps pour la corsetterie.' You can't argue with that. I made a mental note not to rush things next time I was shopping for a corset, and leaned back to allow the waiter through with the next course.” — 3 likes

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