My opinion of this fluctuated. 
At first, I found the stereotyping of the people around The Fortescue, to be a bit pretentious and rude. It had this feeling of superiority that I was not a fan of. 

But slowly the writing won me over. The narration was full of humor, the author wrote about her ownself with a level of self depreciating humor, and the descriptions of life sounded idyllic. 

I was stuck by how comfortable she was in asking for and accepting help from strange men in the night when her car was stuck in a gully or wandering around by herself and handling all kinds of business that I think, today, sends alot of us into a torrent of "what ifs". 

Ultimately,  I figured out that the way she wrote about the people around her was not done with an ill intent......but was just kind of common for the time. Lady Fortescue herself sounds like she was kind or at least tried her best. 

I was not expecting a couple parts to make me emotional but they did. 

overall, yes its horribly dated and some of the commentary should be taken with a grain of salt but I did enjoy this little glimpse of live in Provence in the 1930s.