Mireille Harmelin

Have you ever fantasized about leaving big-city life behind and making a beeline for a bucolic village? That's exactly what Alphonse Daudet did, and he documents the results of his decision in the series of fictionalized sketches collected in Letters From My Windmill, in which he recounts his move from the hustle and bustle of Paris to the rustic life in a small village in Provence. The book is prized throughout France for its loving depiction of the virtues of rural life.