A Year in Provence
The Earful Tower: Paris
Oliver Gee
4.8 • 794 Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2018
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we're talking all about a memoir, A Year in Provence, a book that may not have changed the face of the French village of Ménerbes, but apparently changed the rest.
It sold 6 million + copies over the past 30 years and was translated into 40 languages, sending tourists from all over the world to find out exactly what was so charming about the little village.
The memoir was the subject for The Earful Tower's Book Club for October and I, too, stopped into the village to take a look around and speak to the locals about how it changed life in the village.
Referenced in this podcast is this obituary from The Telegraph, and this article from the Washington Post.
Join the book club if you're on Facebook and you like books. It's free to join, but I recommend you sign up at $5 a month on Patreon to support it and secure its future. Find it on Facebook here.
November's book? Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oliver G here with the Airful Tower. This week we're talking all about a book, A Year in |
| 0:04.6 | Provence by Peter Mail. The reason that I'm talking about this book is, well, that's two |
| 0:09.4 | or threefold, really. It's because it was kind of a game-changer when it came to books about France. |
| 0:14.2 | It was this fish out of water and Englishmen living in Provence writing all about it, |
| 0:18.6 | and it really sort of sparked the genre that continues to this day. |
| 0:21.8 | A lot of the guests I've had on the show have written similar kind of books about how they |
| 0:25.2 | moved to France and the challenges. |
| 0:27.3 | Another reason that I did this, I'm doing this episode, is because we went on the honeymoon |
| 0:31.3 | to the exact village where it was set. |
| 0:33.5 | Menna and I went and visited it. |
| 0:36.2 | And while I was there, I even talked to someone working in the hospitality industry about how over 30 years it sort of changed the face of the village. |
| 0:45.4 | Maybe not visually, but it changed the mentality and how it brought tourism, the impact it had on one village in France. |
| 0:52.7 | And the third reason I'm doing is because it was the book, |
| 0:55.3 | the October book for the Eiffel Tower Book Club, |
| 0:57.3 | the first ever book. |
| 0:58.5 | And I figured it was a good chance to give a little behind the scenes on this book |
| 1:02.7 | and its place in France, French culture and French history. |
| 1:06.3 | So on with the episode. |
| 1:07.8 | Let's start, as always, with Slim and the Beast. |
| 1:10.3 | Music on with the episode let's start as always with slimming the beast let's start as always with slimming the beast |
| 1:14.4 | jump on my back |
| 1:19.0 | hold on tight |
... |
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