A language survives by being read. Here is where to obtain Provençal in print, in Mistralian spelling: two living newspapers you can subscribe to, the textbooks for learning the language, the reference works for checking it, and something to read for pleasure. Free reading comes first, at CIEL d'Oc and on Gallica; the Provençal publishers themselves, such as L'Astrado, Prouvènço d'aro or the Collectif Prouvènço's shop, come next; the large retailers such as Amazon come last, for the few titles they carry. Living Provençal literature is not found on the large platforms. Every title below uses Mistralian spelling. Prices are those found with publishers and booksellers in August 2026 and may have changed.
Subscribe to a newspaper
Prouvènço d'aro
Monthly · written entirely in Provençal €25 a yearThe newspaper of the struggle for the language, published every month for decades: editorial, reporting, interviews, book reviews, a serialised novel and the cartoons of Gezou. Edited by Bernat Giély. This is Provençal as written today, on the subjects of today.
To subscribe: a cheque for €25 payable to « Prouvènço d'aro »,
12 traverse Baude, 13010 Marseille, France · tel. +33 6 83 48 32 67 ·
lou.journau@prouvenco-aro.com
prouvenco-aro.com
— there is no online payment; you write or telephone.
Me Dison Prouvènço
Quarterly · bilingual Provençal-French €28 for 4 issuesThe magazine of the Collectif Prouvènço, redesigned in 2024 into something closer to a current affairs magazine. It features the towns, the places and above all the men and women of Provence. Membership of the association, at €50, includes the subscription.
To subscribe:
boutique-collectifprovence.com
The magazine:
observatoire-provence.com
Learning and revising
Parlons provençal, langue et culture
Philippe Blanchet €13.99 (digital)An introduction at once enjoyable and serious: the historical, geographical and social facts that define the language of Provence, then its phonetic, grammatical and lexical features, through dialogues, examples and literary extracts. A bilingual vocabulary and a bibliography close the book. The author is a professor at Rennes 2 University, a sociolinguist, and winner of the Frédéric Mistral prize in 1992 for his poetry in Provençal. The paperback edition is not sold on amazon.fr: only a digital edition (Kindle, Print Replica format) is available there.
L'Harmattan, Parlons series, 1999 · 160 pages · ISBN 2-7384-7715-1 · Kindle Print Replica edition €13.99 · Buy on Amazon (digital)
Provençal de poche
Virginie Bigonnet, Simon Calamel, Philippe BlanchetA pocket phrasebook: essential phrases and key words, a lexicon of more than two thousand words, detailed pronunciation guidance. Beyond the tourist clichés, the book takes the time to approach the language of Provence in its own right. Second edition; new copies are no longer offered on amazon.fr, only a used copy was available there, in a single unit at the time of verification.
Assimil, Évasion series, 2011 (2nd edition) · 168 pages · ISBN 978-2-7005-0530-6 · Buy on Amazon (used)
Parle-moi provençal : guide + 2 CD audio
Philippe Blanchet €22.40 (used)Forty texts with their French translation and linguistic and cultural notes, plunging the reader into the world of Provence: pétanque, Camargue bull-running, bouillabaisse, seaside cabins. The two CDs serve pronunciation and intonation, following the Assimil method. New copies are no longer offered on amazon.fr, only a used copy was available there, in a single unit at the time of verification.
Assimil, 2010 · 256 pages · ISBN 978-2-7005-4046-8 · Buy on Amazon (used)
Le provençal, guide de conversation Pour les nuls
Philippe Blanchet €3.91 (paperback, used) · €6.99 (Kindle)The keys to learning everyday expressions, vocabulary and conjugation: greetings, ordering a meal, phone and email expressions. A simple phonetic notation accompanies every Provençal word. The book is written in Mistralian spelling.
First éditions, Pour les nuls series, 2011 · 213 pages · ISBN 978-2-7540-2610-9 · Buy on Amazon
Zóu ! Un pau de gramatico !
Jean-Michel Turc €12.50Seventy worksheets on Provençal grammar with more than two hundred corrected exercises, for levels A1 to A2, covering both major varieties, Maritime and Rhodanian. The author has been a majoral of the Félibrige since 2017, holds the French state teaching qualification in the language of oc, and teaches Provençal in Marseille.
Ellipses, 2018 · 176 pages · ISBN 978-2-340-02324-6 · Buy on Amazon
Zóu, bouleguen-si !
Jean-Michel Turc €12.50The companion volume to the above, devoted to vocabulary: seventy worksheets and their corrected exercises for acquiring the basic lexicon.
Ellipses, 2016 · ISBN 978-2-340-01025-3 · Buy on Amazon
Le provençal, l'essentiel
Jean-Michel Turc €3.50A pocket foldout: rules of pronunciation, numbers, adverbs, personal pronouns, conjugation and the main irregular verbs. The cheapest way to begin. A second volume, counversacien / counversacioun (Aedis, 2018, ISBN 978-2-84259-932-4, €3.50), covers everyday conversation.
Aedis, 2016 · ISBN 978-2-84259-847-1 · Buy on Amazon
Reference grammar and dictionary
Grammaire du verbe provençal
Bernard GiélySeven hundred pages devoted to the verb alone: morphology, syntax, phraseology and conjugation tables. Nothing comparable exists for Provençal. The author edits Prouvènço d'aro, which publishes the book. It is a rare book: an Amazon listing exists but currently shows it as unavailable, with no known restock date. The main way to buy it remains bookshops specialising in Provençal.
Prouvènço d'aro, 1995 · 702 pages · View on Amazon (currently unavailable)
Dictionnaire fondamental français-provençal
Philippe Blanchet €5.00The thousand most common French words translated into Provençal, with attention to expressions and proverbs specific to the language. A compact format, meant for everyday use rather than scholarly work.
Éditions Gisserot, 2003 · 128 pages · ISBN 978-2-87747-612-6 · Buy on Amazon
Mon premier dictionnaire français-provençal en images
Philippe Blanchet, Christophe Lazé, Marie-Paule Cadieu €5.00An introduction to Provençal through pictures, aimed at young children. A reference for learning Provençal at primary-school level for nearly thirty years.
Éditions Gisserot, 1999 · 31 pages · ISBN 978-2-87747-411-5 · Buy on Amazon
Dictionnaire français-provençal
Jules CoupierMore than sixty thousand entries across fifteen hundred pages, the modern dictionary from French into Provençal. Begun in 1982 by a self-taught lexicographer and his wife, revised by a team of volunteers under the direction of the linguist Philippe Blanchet, prefaced by Charles Rostaing, and published thanks to some eight hundred subscribers. The price varies by seller for this old book: check the price shown on the seller's listing at the time of purchase.
Édisud, 1995 · 1511 pages · ISBN 978-2-85744-824-2 · Buy on Amazon
Reading for pleasure
La glòri de moun paire
Marcel Pagnol in graphic novel form, translated by Jean-Michel TurcThe first volume of Pagnol's Childhood Memories, adapted by Scotto, Stoffel and Tanco, then carried into Marseille Provençal. Pagnol in Pagnol's own language. This volume is not sold separately on Amazon: it only exists in a boxset with its sequel, Lou Castèu de ma maire. That sequel, on its own, is sold separately.
Boxset « La glòri de moun paire » + « Lou Castèu de ma maire »
(Bamboo, Grand Angle series, 2019):
Buy the boxset on Amazon
Lou Castèu de ma maire alone (Bamboo, 2019, 96 pages): €19.90 ·
Buy on Amazon
The stories of Rolande Falleri
Rolande Falleri, félibresseContemporary Provençal prose, published in bilingual editions with French on the facing page: Au cascai de la font and its eleven short stories, Sus lou pountin for the theatre, and the tales of Lou Pichot Elefant d'Evòri. She joined the Félibrige in 2014 and twice took second prize at the 2018 Jeux floraux.
Lou Pichot Elefant d'Evòri (Nombre7 Éditions, 2019, digital) · €7.99 · Buy on Amazon
Camin Crousa, Chemins croisés
Philippe Blanchet €27.50 (paperback) · €20.99 (digital)Twenty-three short stories in a bilingual edition, the Provençal text facing the French: contemporary Provençal prose, accessible without prior mastery of the language. The author is a professor at Rennes 2 University, winner of the Frédéric Mistral prize in 1992 for his poetry in Provençal.
L'Harmattan, 2009 · 285 pages · ASIN 2296073611 · Buy on Amazon
Je suis provençal mais je me soigne
Philippe Blanchet €12A book of essays for the general reader, written in French, on Provence and its culture. The author is a professor at Rennes 2 University, winner of the Frédéric Mistral prize in 1992 for his poetry in Provençal.
Héliopoles, 2026 · 222 pages · ASIN 2379852006 · Buy on Amazon
The Provençal publishers
L'Astrado Prouvençalo
Publisher in the Provençal languageThe leading publisher in the Provençal language, founded in Toulon in 1965 by Louis Bayle, today based in Berre-l'Étang under the presidency of Michel Courty. It publishes poetry, prose, theatre, essays and children's books, in Provençal with a French translation or in French, and it publishes the bilingual journal L'Astrado. Its 2025 catalogue lists eighty-three titles, including La Rèino Jano by Frédéric Mistral, La Genèsi translated by Mistral, Molière's Lou Tartufe rendered into Provençal by Jules Coupier, and Taulo, Rudy Rousset's first collection, published in June 2026.
The association has no online shop: its books are ordered by writing directly to the association.
The major works
The great texts of Mistralian Provençal can be read freely at CIEL d'Oc, in their original spelling. Where an edition also exists on Amazon, the link is given in addition, never in place of the free reading.
Frédéric Mistral
Mirèio
Frédéric MistralAn epic poem in twelve cantos, the work that won Mistral the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904. It tells of the thwarted love between Mirèio and Vincèn, from rural Provence to the Camargue. First published in 1859.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
Calendau
Frédéric MistralA poem telling the adventures of a young fisherman from Cassis who becomes a prince, between the calanques and Mont Ventoux. Mistral's second great epic poem. First published in 1867.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc
Lis Isclo d'Or
Frédéric MistralA collection of various poems bringing together lyric pieces Mistral composed over the years, with a biographical preface written by the author himself. First published in 1876.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc, volume I · volume II · Buy on Amazon
Nerto
Frédéric MistralA poem telling, between legend and history, the love between a young woman and a knight in the time of the popes of Avignon. First published in 1884.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
Lou Pouèmo dóu Rose
Frédéric MistralMistral's last great epic poem, devoted to the bargemen of the Rhône and the disappearance of a world swept away by steam navigation. First published in 1897.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
Memòri e Raconte
Frédéric MistralMistral's memoirs: his childhood, his education, the birth of the Félibrige and the genesis of his work. First published in 1906.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc
Lis Óulivado
Frédéric MistralMistral's last collection of poetry, a meditation on old age and death through the image of the olive tree. First published in 1912.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
Théodore Aubanel
La Mióugrano entre-Duberto
Théodore AubanelA collection of amorous and mystical poetry, praised by Frédéric Mistral, who wrote its preface. First published in 1860.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
Li Fiho d'Avignoun
Théodore AubanelA collection of poems devoted to the women of Avignon, part portrait, part amorous evocation. First published in 1885.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
Lou Pan dóu Pecat
Théodore AubanelA drama in five acts and in verse, on wrongdoing and redemption. First published in 1878.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
Joseph Roumanille
Li Cascareleto
Joseph RoumanilleA collection of tales in Provençal prose, often reissued under the title « Li Conte prouvençau e li Cascareleto ». First published in 1846.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
Félix Gras
Li Rouge dóu Miejour
Félix GrasA historical novel of the French Revolution as lived in Provence, with a French translation alongside in several editions. First published in 1896.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
Joseph d'Arbaud
La Bèstio dóu Vaccarés
Joseph d'ArbaudA fantastical tale of a Camargue herdsman confronted with a mythical creature. First published in 1926. The Provençal text is not found on Amazon; only a French-only translation is sold there, and it is not this text.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc
Baptiste Bonnet
Vido d'enfant
Baptiste BonnetAn autobiographical account of a peasant childhood in Provence, translated by Alphonse Daudet. First published in 1894.
Free reading: CIEL d'Oc · Buy on Amazon
To read for free, without buying anything, see the digitised collections listed on our
reference websites page:
CIEL d'Oc and Gallica hold thousands of Provençal texts in open access.
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