They had been there often as tourists. They had cherished the dream of someday living all year under the Provencal sun. And suddenly it happened. Here is the month-by month account of the charms and frustrations that Peter Mayle and his wife -- and their two large dogs -- experience their first year in the remote country of the Luberon restoring a two-centuries-old stone farmhouse that they bought on sight. From coping in January with the first mistral,...

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 The New Year began with a lunch in the village of Lacoste, a few miles away from Le Simiane. The food was delicious, and the atmosphere relaxed. We had been here many times as tourists, desperate for our annual ration of two or three weeks of true heat and sharp light. #2 The French have a weakness for erecting jolies villas wherever building regulations allow, and...

"It's love at first sight when Penelope Kite sees Le Chant d'Eau--The Song of Water--the stone farmhouse tucked high in the hills above the Luberon valley, complete with a garden, swimming pool, and sweeping mountain vistas. For years, Penelope put her unfaithful ex-husband and her ungrateful stepchildren first. Since taking early retirement from her job in forensics at the Home Office in England, she's been an unpaid babysitter and chauffeur for...

The story begins high above Los Angeles, at the extravagant home and equally impressive wine cellar of entertainment lawyer Danny Roth. After inviting the "Los Angeles Times" to write an extensive profile extolling the liquid treasures of his collection, Roth finds himself the victim of a world-class wine heist. Enter Sam Levitt, former corporate, cultivated crime expert, and wine connoisseur, who follows his leads as he tracks down the source of...

A recipe-complemented work continues the author's tribute to the region of Tuscany and its people, tracing the course of a year during which she renovated a thirteenth-century house in the mountains above Cortona.

The charms of rustic Provence, as savored by a London advertising man who moved there.

"On a tiny French island, a couple of American dreamers redefine their lives by restoring a ruin...The French House moves to a soulful, very funny rhythm all its own."—Meryl Streep

Don and Mindy Wallace have always been Francophiles, so when they had the opportunity to buy a home on a small French island off the coast of Brittany, they jumped—sight unseen—into a crumbling mess that challenged their finances and their

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