The English as they see others: England revealed in Provence.

The article analyzes Peter Mayle's best-selling accounts of his life in Provence, France that have appealed to a wide audience in Britain and attracted harsh criticism. Mayle's works are to be seen as lifestyle guides to the English. Early retirement, travel, home building, food and drink, all are major themes. The author is engaged in a spiritual search for authentic living and a new identity. These books are not written for consumption by the French they are myths for the English. The French have their own corresponding myths and preoccupations. Mayles' relations with local people are on his account very different. He defers to their knowledge and experience throughout, whether on gastronomy, oenology, agriculture, domestic architecture, local customs, or strategies for dealing with bureaucracy. They offer advice, he frequently takes it, invariably to his own benefit. He is not a retired bourgeois giving orders to servants, but a semi-retired member of the service class engaged in mutually profitable relations with artisans. He and his wife seek to immerse themselves in the host culture, not to export England. There is no mention of an expatriate community.