A School Year in Provence: Sunny day in Forcalquier

We decided to take a ride to Forcalquier one Monday morning in Febuary when our friends, Heather, Mike and Phineas were visiting. Monday is market day in Forcalquier and since I love markets and we had never been there, we were off to explore!

The man in the top picture is selling silicone lids for cooking and storage.

Luckily I did not have to make up my mind choosing a basket. They are all so beautiful, it would be so hard to pick just one! Heather ended up buying a natural colored basket with long leather straps.

There are so many different things you can buy at the market: artisanal products like olive oil, beer, olive pastes and pottery. But there is so much more: pots and pans, clothing, dried fruits, spices, straw bags, vegetables, meat, fish, shoes and mattresses, just to name a few things.

I love looking at the displays of fruit and vegetables, mounds of fragrant spices and all of the colorful pottery. We bought some olive tapenade and some vegetables. Later we picked out a small colorful bowl. We put our pocket change in the bowl so when we need to buy a baguette we have a few euros at hand.

Next we needed to get lunch! We had a few minutes to kill before our table was ready so we decided to go for a little stroll around the old part of the town. Our first stop was Place Saint Michel - St Michael's Square. The fountain was the centerpiece and so was the dog that became Sophia's playmate.

The Saint-Michel fountain is located in a little square in Forcalquier. Although the origins to the fountain date back to 1512 changes have been made to the fountain over the years. The original octagonal basin has been replaced with a round basin and the upper sculpted part was completely remade in 1976. The original is located in the city hall.

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The town Forcalquier is located on a hill. At the very top of the hill you can visit Notre de Dame de Provence, an octagonal chapel. The chapel was constructed on the former site of a medieval citadel and although the citadel was destroyed in 1601 there are remains of the structure. We walked up through the park-like paths to the top of the hill. Along the way I saw a communal garden, wooden fences and a sylvan path with stations of the cross.

Notre-Dame-de-Provence was built in 1875 on the site of the chateau of the Counts of Forcalquier. The chapel is built in a Neo-Byzantine architecture with a dome and arches. The statue of Mary dominates the dome and the hill. There is also a manual carillon on the top of the hill and it is played every Sunday at 11:30 and on religious holidays.

The views from the top of the hill are fantastic! We could see the snow on the Montagne de Lurs and in the Alps.

Views of the Montagne de Lurs

Looking south-east towards Volx

We walked down a different path that took us below the highest part of the hill and we found a small chapel and some ruins of the chateau or medieval fortress. The walk back to the cars brought us through narrow streets and old doorways and some new construction build in a very old ruin. There is more to see in Forcalquier so I will have to return again to walk the narrow streets.