Two Towns in Provence

Book excerpt: MFK Fisher is widely recognised as one of the finest writers on food and the pleasures of the table. Over the years she spent much of her time living and travelling around France, and ruminating - wisely, entertainingly, and with a deep and well-informed affection - on French food, French manners, French places and, of course, the French themselves. Here she not only celebrates, in her uniquely perceptive, evocative fashion, Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, but also gives us 'my picture, my map, of a place and therefore of myself'. Weaving together topography, history, folklore and personal memoirs with the look, the sound, the smell and (above all, perhaps) the taste of her chosen cities, MFK Fisher provides the traveller, the lover of food, France and fine writing with unforgettable portraits of two remarkable and highly individual towns.