Peter Mayle: In Provence, I’m Regarded as “a Fairly Benevolent Oddity”
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 04.05.06 | 9:20 AM ET
In the new issue of Newsweek International, which is loaded with compelling travel-related stories, the author of “A Year in Provence” writes about the history of tourism in the region and defends tourists. “I’ve been a tourist in Provence for about 15 years now, often on the receiving end of criticism or mild abuse from people who accuse me of having ‘ruined’ the region by writing about it,” he writes. “Curiously, these complaints, which are sometimes offensive and invariably very shrill, do not come from the Provençaux themselves, who seem to regard me as a fairly benevolent oddity, but from my fellow tourists.” Also online, Marcel Theroux (yes, son of that Theroux) celebrates the notion of “Elsewhere”: “It’s a place of enchantment and transformation which can be arduous to reach, but which promises to enrich your understanding of the world, and reflect your own life back at you.”
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
roger 04.05.06 | 5:20 PM ET
Read the article - doesn’t actually say much! Just honeyed prose: I am still reeling from commercial success “A Good Year” is enjoying. Call it sour grapes.