Sisteron city

Sisteron " the Gate to Provence " is a floral city of 8000 inhabitants located at an altitude of 485m ,135 km from Marseille and Grenoble and 180 km from Nice. It's the birthplace of the poet Paul Arène (1843- 1896).

On the Route Napoleon, on the banks of the Durance river, Sisteron is a unique halt between the Alps and the sea.

It is said that "here a country finishes and another one starts". Sisteron is a unique border between the two regions of Provence and Dauphiné.

It's an exceptional city because of its beauty, light and colour.

It's an exceptional city because of its history : here happiness and misfortunes, glory and misery have taken turns.

It's an exceptional city because of its many rich unusual monuments : it's above all a picturesque fortified city because of its natural attractive and eye-catching location on the banks of the Durance river in the narrowest part of the valley.

It has an exceptional weather with about 300 sunny days a year and an unrivalled clear blue sky. Its fauna and flora are exceptional too. This is the town that you approach in the glaring light of the provencal High Lands.

Nature and animal lovers the region of Sisteron will indeed enable you to familiarize yourself with them during your walks.

The animal husbandry sheep is important here and you will discover numerous herds of ewes and lambs hereabouts. Do not miss in June, some stockbreeders who still make transhumance on foot up to summer pasture.

In the plains and countryside you can come across all common animals : foxes, weasels, hares, beech martens, russet field voles, badgers, fieldmouses, shrews, roebucks and wild boars. In the mountains you will delight in discovering chamois, marmots and mouflons   

Birds are also numerous: siskins, tits, hoopoes, woodpeckers, blackbirds, jays, cuckoos, flights of goldfinches and bee eaters (in spring), larks, thrushes, pheasants, woodcocks, partridges, woodpigeons, birds of prey, such as buzzards, hawks and one or two couples of golden eagles on the mountain of Gache.

It would be much too long  to list all the insects here, but it is however necessary to mention the honeybees which produce the famous honey of lavender as well as  that of thyme or oak. Apiaries disseminated in the country attest it. The singing of the cicadas will lull you during your relaxing moments.

Now restored,  the ancient chapel of the Visitandines (17th century) is the splended setting of the Earth and Time Museum.

Rare and unusual objects are displayed there to explain the mechanisms of time, for instance a fabulous water clock with robots, the pendulum of Foucault, sundials.

The time for man leads to the time for the Earth. Nature is marked by the passage of time. Dendrochronology, meteorites, fossils.

The "Earth and Time Tour" through the town approches time in its religious aspects (chapel and cathedral), civil one ( public clock) and military one ( citadel).

Between Provence and Dauphiné, the city of the poet of Provence Paul ARENE, located within an incomparable framework, reveals you the richness of his heritage architectural and museographic, invites you to taste the local specialities lamb of Sisteron, feet & packages, calissons and nougats.

This day perhaps accompanied by a guide by country

Sisteron welcomes you for a discovery and an expatriation in theAlpes de Haute-Provence. Between citadel Vauban, Forcalquier city of the 4 queens, the Gorges of the Verdon and odorous lavender, you will spend 4 days with a guide of country in our city and its neighbourhoods.

Period: valid from March in mid-November

Customers: individual or groups minimum of 20 people