I’d begun reading the late Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence and the sequel Toujours Provence aloud to Carol, generally as preparation for our trip to France but specifically  for our stopover in Avignon. While his depictions of the region would differ from our own during the week we spent there, one in particular was spot on.

  I’ve been rereading Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence by reading it aloud to Carol. Movie night with a BBC DVD of the book followed this past weekend, and then we dove right into Mayle’s sequel Toujours Provence. Our longest stay in France will be in the same apartment hotel I stayed in Avignon, when I was reading A Year for the first time to myself. Just about everything Carol and I will be seeing together is well trod ground from Mayle’s books. I, of course, will be seeing all of it for the first time. (I spent five days in Avignon that first time, too.)