Provence Trip Sept 2024 - Part 4 Sisteron

Our next destination, Sisteron, has a large citadel perched on a rock overlooking the town. 

This photo below is from the main town looking across the river Durance to the Rocher de la Baume.

And this is the side with the town and citadel, which you can see parts of way above us. We were prepared for this climb, however, it was rather windy. By rather windy I mean bloody awful freezing cold wind, and I had umpteen layers on including scarf and gloves. We managed about 10 steps up the path to the citadel before deciding it would only get worse the higher we went, so decided to give the citadel a miss and headed into the town instead!

Thankfully the buildings protected us from the worst of the wind so we could have a nice stroll around the town, which was really rather lovely.

I thought this shop was gorgeous - how beautifully decorated is that?! It's only touristy stuff inside but if you want to entice the tourists, this is the way to do it! (Though we didn't actually go inside 😀 because we have seen umpteen tourist shops and they generally have the same kind of thing on sale).

What I really started to notice was how beautifully decorated the town was florally. 4,700 of France's towns and villages are labelled as 'Ville Fleuri' or 'Village Fleuri' with either one to four stars (or rather, flowers) on a sign at the entrance to each town. Sisteron only has three flowers but I would have given it a five!

The church of Notre-Dame-des Pommiers, built between 1160 to 1220. Pommiers means apple trees, so I think Our Lady of the Apple Trees is a lovely name for a church (unless it is named after someone or a saint called that, which is not so romantic 😀).

Below was the best view we saw of the citadel. It would have been a tough climb up there anyway! It's something to do another time.

All I can find out about this tower is that it is medieval and called the Tour de la Médisance and was once part of the city walls.

The clock tower.

On our way further north that afternoon we passed this lovely lake, the Lac de Serre-Ponçon.

Our destination was the Queyras Regional Natural Park and the town of Guillestre. The map shows from Buis les Baronnies to Sisteron and onwards. The black line is the border with Italy.