aixcentric

Surviving Provence is a humorous account of the people (and animals) who share author Barbara Farber’s  daily life in the South of France.  It is a far cry, she explains, from an ode to lavender and sunflowers.

She writes: “Although my husband and I were both born in the United States, we have spent the greater part of our lives in Europe, mostly in The Netherlands. Leaving our working years and Amsterdam behind us, we settled into our huge white elephant of a house in Provence. 

“The house is the star of the book.  It has been a setting for TV soup commercials, oversized women’s clothes for a Swiss mail order catalogue, and fashion photography of very chic men’s underwear with a sexy Los Angeles male model, who posed in very minimal shorts, outside in November, smiling and shivering the whole time.  The newest model of Peugeot was unveiled on our terrace.  Several TV series, almost always involving a murder or kidnapping, brought film crews for weeks.

“The first chapter, The House, tells an intriguing, bizarre and, sometimes, sad tale of this old house we now live in as the first non-family member.  It recounts how we came to buy it, the history of the family, the role it played during the Vichy regime and it’s super-natural vibes.

“Of course food and wine play an important role.  The French have very precise eating and drinking habits, quite different from our Anglo-Saxon ways.  There are no restaurant recommendations, only wonderful Provençal recipes and descriptions of disastrous dinner parties, mine, as well as some to which we have been invited.

 “The chapter Social life gives a funny twist to relations with the local garage mechanic, the post office lady, the chicken vendor at the weekly market, the pharmacist, our wine producing neighbour, hunters, beekeepers, and the  sympathetic veterinarian.”  Barbara includes anecdotes on her local plumber with his use of “quaint” Provençal expletives,  super sensitive shutter painters, a tree cutter who talks to their plane trees and a very Zen gardener, all  described with a sympathetic eye to their follies and foibles.

All aspects of living in Provence are described: “Rabbits and wild boars destroy our well-manicured grass.  The post office lady in her yellow car gives cookies to our three dogs when she delivers our mail.  A small dog drinks beer at a local café with his master.”

The author:  Barbara Farber was born in New Jersey, USA but has spent most of her life in Europe.  She has lived in Brussels, Zurich and for 35 years in Amsterdam where she founded a contemporary art gallery.   After moving to Provence, she continued to be involved with art as a collector.  She has written numerous articles for various magazines.  This is her first book.

‘Surviving Provence’ is available from Book-in-Bar in rue Joseph Cabassol, Aix, and will shortly be listed on Amazon.