RIP d'Une Autre Francaise

        Peter Mayle
6-14-1939  -  1-18-18
in Menerbes, France

I was very sorry to read of his demise for he had provided a great deal of amusement to an even greater number of people.  His oeuvre "A Year in Provence" was considered the springboard into the pool that  became Frances Mayes' "Under the Tuscan Sun."  

Subsequent to publication of the Provence books, the Tuscan books came hard charging along behind with the end result that a lot of people who had enthusiastically filled their homes with Provence fabrics, table ware, and on and on instead turned to Tuscan items and nearly stripped the shop shelves bare of "Made in Tuscany" items.

To my surprise, because he only mentioned a wife en passent in his books, when, in fact, he had had three.  His first wife Pamela presented him with three sons - Simon, Nicholas and Christopher; number 2, Nicola, delighted him with Jane and Joanna and his 3rd wife, Jennie, was the incumbent when he died.  

Arguably, he was hoist with his own petard of fame in that he had to flee France due to the tourists for a hidden corner of Amagansett, in the Hamptons, Long Island.    Once ensconced there, he refused interviews on his property and begged reporters, "No photos please!"