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21 " As our lawyer friend had noticed, men kiss other men. They squeeze shoulders, slap backs, pummel kidneys, pinch cheeks. When a Provençal man is truly pleased to see you, there is a real possibility of coming away from his clutches with superficial bruising. "
― Peter Mayle , A Year in Provence
22 " The kitchen garden satisfies both requirements, a thing 0f beauty and a joy for dinner. "
― Peter Mayle , Encore Provence: New Adventures in the South of France
23 " The people of Provence greeted spring with uncharacteristic briskness, as if nature had given everyone an injection of sap. "
24 " It was exciting at first... Then it became routine. I guess everything does, even if it's dangerous. "
― Peter Mayle , Anything Considered
25 " What a marvelous sunset,' she said. 'Yes,' replied her husband. 'Most impressive for such a small village. "
26 " La Closerie, in Ansouis. "
― Peter Mayle , Provence in Ten Easy Lessons: From Provence A-Z: A Francophile's Essential Handbook (Vintage Departures)
27 " I called Monsieur Menicucci, and he asked anxiously about my pipes. I told him they were holding up well. "That pleases me," he said, "because it is minus five degrees, the roads are perilous, and I am fifty-eight years old. I am staying at home." He paused, then added, "I shall play the clarinet. "
28 " probity "
― Peter Mayle , The Diamond Caper
29 " Cavaillon—which, as any Provençal will tell you, is the “melon capital of the world”—with "
30 " The town maps in the 1939 [Michelin] guide were so accurate they were used by the Allied forces in 1944 during the liberation of France. "
― Peter Mayle , French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew
31 " Out here in the country there was no avoiding the direct link between death and dinner, "
32 " Dar, bineînțeles, spusese el, se știe că englezii își omoară mieii de două ori: o dată când îi taie și a doua oară când îi gătesc. "
33 " Gu himself presides over the room- a genial, noisy man with the widest, jauntiest, must luxuriant and ambitious mustache I have ever seen, permanently fighting gravity and the razor in its attempts to make contact with Gu's eyebrows. "
34 " And then there is the most self-indulgent truffle recipe of all, which a friend claims is the closest thing on earth to having heaven in your mouth. You start with a generous slice of foie gras, and place it on a sheet of tinfoil. You then place your truffle on the foie gras and put it in the oven, where the truffle gradually sinks into the melting foie gras. The complex, slightly earthy taste of the truffle and the unctuous coating of foie gras may put you off hamburgers forever. Bon appétit! "
― Peter Mayle , My Twenty-Five Years in Provence: Reflections on Then and Now
35 " ...the demented clatter-like nuts and bolts trying to escape from a biscuit tin-of the small Citroën van that every farmer drives home at lunchtime... "
36 " Why not make a daily pleasure out a daily necessity. "
― Peter Mayle
37 " The French, it seems to me, strike a happy balance between intimacy and reserve. Some of this must be helped by the language, which lends itself to graceful expression even when dealing with fairly basic subjects.... And there's that famously elegant subtitle from a classic Western.COWBOY: "Gimme a shot of red-eye."SUBTITLE: "Un Dubonnet, s'il vous plait."No wonder French was the language of diplomacy for all those years. "
38 " It was generally agreed that they were a funny bunch, these natives of August. "
39 " I have a terrible weakness for collecting snatches of other people's conversations, and occasionally I'm rewarded with unusual fragments of knowledge. My favorite of the day came from a large but shapely woman sitting nearby whom I learned was the owner of a local lingerie shop. 'Beh oui,' she said to her companion, waving her spoon for emphasis, 'il faut du temps pour la corsetterie.' You can't argue with that. I made a mental note not to rush things next time I was shopping for a corset, and leaned back to allow the waiter through with the next course. "
40 " If I live to be sixteen, I shall never fully understand the rich complexities of human nature. Not sure that I want to, either. It would be a lifetime's work, and brooding over the mysteries of existence is bad for your health. Look what happens to philosophers. Most of them end up barking mad, taking to the bottle, or becoming professors of existentialism at obscure universities. "