A PROVENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY

History and Art

The Road from the Past: Traveling Through History in France, by Ina Caro, 1994

Ina Caro takes her reader on a historical driving tour of France, beginning chronologically with the Romans in Provence and then moving northwest into the Middle Ages and on through time into the Loire Valley and the region around Paris. The first seven chapters deal with the major Roman monuments in Provence. These sites are described in every guidebook, but Caro puts them in historical context in a way that will excite your curiosity and help you see them in depth. This isn't dry history---it's an opinionated, personal guided tour from from a good historian who also has a lively appreciation for the French countryside and French food. Buy now at Amazon.com.

Village in the Vaucluse, by Lawrence Wylie, 1976

A classic study of the village of Roussillon in the 1950's by a Harvard sociologist who lived there a year with his family. This is a detailed portrait of life in the Vaucluse before it was transformed into a tourist destination. Wylie is both a sympathetic and a keenly analytical observer. If you want a fuller and truer picture of the charming rustics in Peter Mayle's books, read this. Buy now at Amazon.com.

Lourmarin in the Eighteenth Century, by Thomas Sheppard, 1977

We were astounded to find this academic study of the very village where we have our apartment, and where we host our Provence Byways groups. It has of course been out of print for a long time, but we found a copy from bibliofind.com on the Internet. The author extracted much of his information from the plentiful town council and parish records that date back to 1680. His academic approach makes for slightly dry reading, but it was nonetheless fascinating to us to have access to an accurate and detailed picture of life in the eighteenth century in our small Provencal village.

The Identity of France, Volume One: History and Environment and Volume Two: People and Production, by Fernand Braudel,1988.

Not limited to Provence, this classic work by a great French historian is a wonderful introduction to the rich stew of history and geography that is France--a blend of remarkably diverse regions, peoples, languages, and traditions into a single national identity. Eminently readable and deeply informative.

In the Footsteps of Van Gogh, by Giles Plazy, 1998

We confess to not having read (or even seen) this book. The excellent book about Van Gogn in Provence that we had formerly listed here is now out of print and unavailable anywhere. But judging by the reviews in Amazon.com, In the Footsteps of Van Gogh sounds promising. It combines photographs of the places he lived and worked with reproductions of the paintings he did in the same places, providing a kind of guided tour of his life and art. Van Gogh's letters to his brother, Theo, are quoted extensively in captions. Buy now at Amazon.com.

Cezanne in Provence, by Evmarie Schmitt, 1995

This is a short biography of Cezanne. Nonetheless it's a good partner with the Van Gogh book for someone who is going to the Vaucluse/Bouches-du-Rhone part of Provence and is a fan of its two major painters. This book has lots of reproductions of Cezanne's paintings of the Provencal landscape and some discussion of what he was trying to accomplish in his repeated views of certain scenes. Studying these remarkable paintings will help the traveler look at the Provencal countryside with a sharper eye. Buy now at Amazon.com