Perfume from Provence

Actress Winifred Fortescue and husband left England for a stone house amid olive groves in the hills above Nice. As they extended the house, they were bewitched by the landscape and by the warm-hearted and wily Provençals.



Winifred’s witty account - a best-seller when it was first published in 1935 - is an enchanting read.

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The original story of falling for France, Perfume from Provence was first published in 1935 and became a best-seller.



Winifred Fortescue was an actress who rubbed shoulders with the likes of Jerome K. Jerome and George Bernard Shaw when she married Sir John Fortescue, the king’s librarian and archivist and famous historian of the British Army. Tempted by a better climate and the cheaper cost of living, they left England and found a stone house amid olive groves, high in the hills above Nice. Almost at once they were bewitched by the landscape and especially their garden – delightful terraces of vines, wild flowers, roses and lavender – and by the charming, warm-hearted and wily Provençals.



Winifred’s witty account of life with stonemasons, craftsmen and gardeners as they extend the house is an enchanting read.