A Year in Provence – Peter Mayle
In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs.
He endures January’s frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glorious regional cuisine.
A Year in Provence transports us into all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo governed by seasons, not by days.
Set in the lush countryside of Normandy, France, this new novel of suspense featuring Lady Emily Hargreaves is filled with intrigue, romance, mysterious deaths, and madness.
Philippe d’Orléans, the regent of France, has a gangrenous heart–the result of a life of debauchery, alcohol, power, and flattery. One morning in 1721, he has a brilliant idea to further appease his thirst for power: he decides to marry eleven-year-old Louis the XV to the daughter of Philippe V of Spain, who is only four. This, Orléans hopes, will tie his kingdom to Spain’s. But it could also have a more duplicitous effect: were Louis XV to die without begetting an heir–the likeliness of which is greatly increased by having a child—Orléans himself would finally be king. In exchange, Orléans tosses his own daughter into the bargain, the 12-year-old Mlle de Montpensier, who will marry the Prince of Asturias, the inheritor of the Spanish throne.
