Approximately twenty kilometers north of Manosque, the country of Forcalquier plays a central role in Giono’s work. Not so much for the ancient county town, though splendid, which clings to its limestone spur like ivy to an old trunk. But rather for the surrounding countryside, which inspired him with numerous scenes of rural life.
The atmosphere of a rural Provence
Admittedly, these wind-swept plateaus are rather bare, compared to the ones the author described in The Song of the World and The Man Who Planted Trees, at a time preceding the Thirty Glorious Years, when they were the stage of a world dominated by peasants. But today you can still recover there the atmosphere of the harsh earth, tough to work, which pervades Giono’s work. “The region surrounding Forcalquier is the writer’s land of friendship. There he rubbed shoulders with painters Lucien Jacques and Serge Fiorio who, like him, draw inspiration from this rural and peasant Provence”, explains Christian Morzewski, president of the Friends of Jean Giono.
The stroll begins in Saint-Maime, another village perched on rock. The path quickly races toward the heights, passes a XIIth-century chapel, then follows the crest. On the horizon, the peaks of the Écrins massif silhouette themselves like flint. Down below, a few vine stocks can be seen. The last remnants of a viticultural tradition far more developed in the writer’s era. In addition to cereal farming, livestock, and gypsum quarry exploitation, grape wine brought some wealth to the region. But it required the hard work of men.
Today farmers are few and far between
Along the roadside, Jean-Claude Tarsac, 80 years old, lifts from his enormous hands stones at the edge of his sunflower field. “When I was young, there were still a hundred of us working the land here. Today, the farmers are counted on the fingers of one hand”, sighs the man, still sound of mind and body.
The path runs beside an old stone building: La Margotte. Now transformed into a guesthouse, this Provençal farm with a tile roof and red shutters was Giono’s. The writer visited it often, by bicycle or by coach. He employed farm workers there, sometimes put his own hands to the earth, and there he wrote, in one month, A King Without Entertainment (1947).
Technical sheet and nearby
- Technical sheet: loop starting from Saint-Maime, 15 km and 270 m of cumulative ascent.
- Nearby: go see the Mourres, astonishing stone mushrooms just north of Forcalquier.
👉 “In Giono’s footsteps: four hikes along the writer’s prose to follow the author in his country of the heart”, an article to be found in GEO Special Issue No. 133 for June-July 2026, “France, our favorite summer walks”, on newsstands ✨
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