Forcalquier

Over the weekend I was talking with a friend who will be visiting us this summer and whose daughter may be settling in Forcalquier, so I promised I would get some of my photos up.
Forcalquier is in the Haute Provence (once its capital, in fact, during the middle ages), a thriving town popular with publishers, booksellers, graphic designers, typographers, bookbinders, illuminators, calligraphers, etchers, papermakers.
We were there on a Monday when Forcalquier's enormous market is spread out through the town's streets.

On market days this melodramatic sculpture ends up plunked in the middle of everyday commerce

Elaborate wrought iron balconies are characteristic and lovely

The town is built on a steep slope, climbing to what was once the fortified site of a citadel, destroyed in the 16th century, and now occupied by a small, octagonal chapel crowned with stone angel musicians. There are also the carillon bells, played in concert every Sunday during the summer months.

360 panoramic view on top

In Forcalquier, also, the Couvent des Cordeliers which was built in the 13th century by the Franciscans (named cordeliers because of their rope belts). We could wander around the outside grounds but because of renovations (conceiveable ongoing since 1963...this is France after all) could not visit the interior.

very old, very pollarded trees

Marseille

Marseille, its streets lively and crowded, is a continual fête. The day we were there was not only a market morning, but also the day that Algeria was playing in the FIFA world championship, and Marseille's Algerian partisans added to the daily clamor.

After lunch at our favorite cous cous restaurant off Cours Saint-Louis, we decided to do the climb up to the Cours Julien which we had often heard mentioned. It sits high in the city, an open plaza with restos and cafés and a marché biologique, the streets running off it filled with small shops...but most surprising is the density of the graffiti, the walls of the quarter obviously having been opened to the city's graffiti artists.

View towards the Vieux Port from the steps leading up to the Cours Julien

Back down in the port area, la Maison Diamantée

Narrow streets, tall buildings, and a hodge podge of old and new

We let ourselves be taken advantage of in one of the pricey cafés lining the Vieux Port, but it was worth it, for the perfect afternoon breeze and the view up to the Basilique Notre Dame-de-la-Garde

Aix en Provence, what's being worn on the Cours Mirabeau

Need I add that it is not only French women who spend time before the mirror before going out..

Thyme

Was home with a cold for a couple of day, snoozing and reading in the chaise longue up on the terrace, but by Monday I was back on the road (camera in hand, of course) and we explored one of the back roads in our neighborhood---there are so many beautiful drives, just stepping out the front door and taking any direction-- & along the side of the road, wild thyme! All of Provence is an herb garden!

No one reads a newspaper quite like a Frenchman! I took this picture, and the street shots, in Manosque, a city a bit further north of us, on the Durance river.

Dusk over the village (from our terrace)

La Camargue à cheval