Provence Lifestyle

When you're in Provence, all your senses are awake.

To the eye, it's a symphony of colors: the pastel green of olive trees, the blue of sea and sky, the purple of lavender, the ochre of houses and the rainbow of their shutters, all bathed in the most wonderful light.

provence village yellow flowers

To the ear, it's a symphony of sounds: the joyful voices of the markets, the "clack" of the metal balls thrown by players of "pétanque", the hum of the cicadas.

To the nose it's the lavender fields, the thyme and rosemary that grow in the wild, the wine left to breathe in the glass. To the mouth it's the tastes of olive oil, garlic, basil, figs and the countless varieties of fruit and vegetables. To the skin, it's the kiss of the sun. To the heart, it's being overcome by these sensations, giving in to these delightful contrasts, forgetting everything but the moment, knowing that this is life.

Pastis

pastis provence

Pastis is the alcohol of choice in Provençal cafés. It's a lot like sambuca in Italy, ouzo in Greece, raki in Turkey, and arak in Lebanon and Israel. It tastes of aniseed, it is white once mixed with water and it is very very sweet so it goes down rather easily. But it is also very very strong. For those who enjoy it, it gives a pleasant intoxication, something like an unusually cheerful high. You wouldn't want to get on a bicycle after a glass of it, yet pastis is the legal performance enhancer for the local sport, Pétanque.

Pétanque

On the central square of every village, in good weather, you will see groups of men and women of all ages playing pétanque. It's the popular pastime of Provence, and its rules are simple. It requires three or four players amidst a great number of passionate spectators. The teams' "pointeurs" strive to throw metal balls, close to two pounds each, the closest possible to a smaller ball made of wood. The "tireurs" try to dislodge the other team's ball by striking them with their own balls.

petanque players field provence bocci

The game is a good introduction to the unhurried life of Provence. The writer Marcel Pagnol described it: "Pétanque has a specific rhythm, though it's a slow one. Pensively we drink a glass of pastis, we bend the knees, the ball goes up in the air with a long curve, it falls on the ground and rolls with a gentle screech to the place where it stands still".

Besides providing extraordinary physical benefits (improving muscle tone, hand-eye coordination and precision), pétanque is a social phenomenon. Its equipment is cheap, and it's a game where anyone of any age can participate with conviviality and good mood, encouraging human contacts and abolishing social barriers.

And as there is great need to scientifically appreciate the distance between balls, all are encouraged to form their own opinions, and to express them. The game thus gives birth to passionate and noisy discussions that animate village life.

Markets

Wherever you are in Provence, any day of the week there is a market at a nearby village with stands set up across the main square.

market provence vegetables apt aix

There you will find everything that grows under the sun in a given season, arranged according to the taste of the seller. Butternuts bump right up to garlic and green beans at one stand. At the next, cured meats sit next to lovely cheeses. At another, you can see the goods to set up a Provençal kitchen, from tablecloths with sunflower patterns to salad tongues made with olive wood.

Taking in the variety of things on display can be quite an adventure. And it's fun to discover each market one by one, as each has its character. Out in the open air, as everyone catches up with everyone, in the middle of pets, fountains and foliage, you get a direct experience of life in the community.

Buying a head of lettuce sure takes longer than at the supermarket, as no one will mind holding you up by shooting the breeze with the vendors, who are some of the friendliest people and never tight-lipped with tasty ways to prepare their produce. It's worth taking a clue and doing just the same when your turn comes.

The table

tablecloths provence

Leisurely meals outside under the shade of a tree, with simple yet beautiful table settings that compliment good food made from the freshest ingredients bought at the market... When you eat like this, you're bound to be happier. And some say, to live longer. For more, hit the food pages of our site.

Dialect and accent

Until less than a hundred years ago, most of the population in the villages of the South of France spoke Occitan, which is also known as Langue d'Oc, "oc" being the word for yes. Occitan is not understood by the French speakers of the North. It has many dialects, and Provençal is one of them, or perhaps it is the reverse, as some argue...

When French was imposed at school, Occitan all but disappeared, although there have been efforts to revive it in parts of the South. Nowadays you won't hear much Provençal unless it's from an elderly person. But you'll still hear the Provençal accent all over the region, and it's spoken by locals of all ages. Compared with the Parisian French, it's an accent that sings, closer to Italian, pronouncing the "n"s at the end of words, normally kept silent in Paris. The Provençal accent is slower, sunnier and full of ups and downs: just like the land.

Provençal life in the arts

Should you like to continue your visit of Provençal life, you will find it very well animated in the arts.

cezanne painting provence

In painting, Provence is present in many works by Cézanne and Van Gogh. Cézanne devoted much of his life to painting a countryside that he loved passionately, that of Aix, with its red soil, its poplars, its pine trees and in the background the majestic Mountain Sainte Victoire.

The English writer Peter Mayle wrote many books about his life in Provence. We enjoy his books, which are packed with humor and description, with life and with heart. Our fondest memories perhaps go to the first and most famous of his works: A Year in Provence. Among Provençal French writers, Jean Giono and Marcel Pagnol are the best known, and their masterful stories are widely translated. Giono described the deep Provence, perhaps most famously in Regain, which Pagnol made into film. Pagnol wrote two famous trilogies, the first fictional, the second autobiographical: La gloire de mon père, Le chateau de ma mère and Le temps des secrets.

You can easily enjoy Pagnol's novels at the movies. Two of the more recent adaptations were successful on cinema screens around the world: Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs. Their storytelling is sometimes heavyhanded but we forgive everything for the simple stories and the visual beauty of Provence on the screen.

If you have found this page useful, please share, bookmark or comment.

There are no comments yet