Provence

PROVENCE is so much more than a travel book - though if ever there were a book that would seduce even the most blase traveller then this is it. Alexandra Bonfante-Warren writes with a tasty wit and respect for a region of France that holds many mysteries and countless pleasures. She opens her book with a tale of religious relics and their origins that make you feel as though you are begining a novel! Then she scopes picturesque Provence from the vantage of history from mountains to valleys to plateaus to the sea. In the second half of this generously illustrated book there are vistas of fields of grains and lavendar,vineyards of course, rivers and falls that challenge the supremacy of the sea, and elegantly composed visits into the old buildings, abbeys, cloisters, grottos, mountain villages, marketplaces, etc. This is a splendid introduction to a region of richness rarely observed so well.