Olive Farm

When the opportunity arises for Carol Drinkwater and her husband, Michel, to purchase ten acres of a disused olive farm in the South of France, the idea seems ridiculously farfetched.

After all, they are newlyweds of limited means, and Carol is still adjusting to her role as stepmother to Michel’s two daughters. But the splendor of the region becomes a force they are unable to resist. Michel presents their life savings to the real estate broker as a down payment for the farm, embarking the family on an adventure that will bring them in close contact with the charming countryside, querulous personalities, petty bureaucracies, and extraordinary wildlife (including a ravenous wild boar) of Provence. In the spirit of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence and Frances Mayes’s Under the Tuscan Sun, The Olive Farm is a splendid tour of southern France, from the glamour of Cannes to the Iles de Lérins and a Cistercian monastery on the tiny isle of St. Honorat, to Carol Drinkwater’s own small piece of land, which she transforms from an overgrown plot of weeds and ivy to a thriving, productive farm, transforming in the process her own dream of a peaceful and meaningful life into reality.