Sarah : My friend, did you know that in 1906 a peony was named after me?

Gustave : Yes, my dear, a wise choice, you've always dominated the flowerbeds!

Gustave: Dear Sarah, look at the oculus which points the winter solstice sun at the altar

Sarah: Gustave, you remind me of Edmond Rostand and Chanteclerc's invocation of the sun

Sarah: Gustave, we're a long way from your beams and rivets!

Gustave: Sarah, you know perfectly well that they weren't forged yet!

Château d'Allemagne en Provence

The Château d'Allemagne-en-Provence was begun by François de Castellane, but completed by his son Melchior de Castellane,
in the early 15th century. The building was constructed from
a former keep, attested in 1380.

Gustave: My friend, that reminds me of the Cassis stones that form the base of the Statue
of Liberty

Sarah : And I'm reminded of the fort that bears my name in Belle-Île-en-Mer.

Sarah: Jean Lorrain wrote
The golden star that shines at the top of the hill,
knows not the man whose blue eye beholds it,
but the shepherd, who keeps watch over his sheep,
with his arms folded under his cloak, knows the Gold Star.

Gustave: And I say to you, ‘Poetry is the mathematics of language and existence, the novel is its physics’.

Shooting star showers

The different swarms of shooting stars that scatter across the skies of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence from January to December.
Quadrantids (radiant: Bouvier), Lyrids, Aqua rides, Perseids, Orion ides, Leonids, Geminids, Ursids ,

Gustave: My friend, I designed the dome of the Nice Observatory.

Sarah: Yes, but this sky reminds me of Mucha's poster for the Lady of the Camellias.

Sarah: Dear Gustave, doesn't it look like our Rose Caron as Desdemona?

Gustave: There's no denying that this mineralogy has a Shakespearean air about it!

The Capped Demoiselles.

The Demoiselles coiffées de Pontis are an unusual rock formation commonly known as the ‘fairy chimneys’.
‘on the shores of Lake Serre-Ponçon in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département.

Gustave: I have to admit that Mother Nature outshines a lot of mining engineers.

Sarah: As a sculptor myself, I'd say a lot of artists

Sarah: So, Gustave, one of your bridges takes the train across the river.

Gustave: There was another one, which was a road bridge, but it no longer exists.

Digne-les-Bains

Situated on either side of the Bléone river, Digne-les-Bains is
the capital of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département.
It boasts cathedrals, churches, chapels and a railway bridge commissioned from Eiffel in 1889.

Gustave: In the middle of the churches, you can see the priest Gassendi, mathematician, philosopher, theologian and astronomer.

Sarah: Before I discovered the stage, I wanted to be a nun. Now I'm a tragedian, actress, theatre director, painter and sculptor.

Sarah: Dear Gustave, I may have played on all 5 continents, but I've never seen anything like these rocks!

Gustave: My friend, with over 500 creations around the world, neither have I!

Les Mées

Les Pénitents, Pénitents des Mées or Rochers des Mées,
are a cliff in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region, overlooking the Durance valley and the village of Les Mées.

Gustave: Sarah, I set up the national meteorological office at the top of my tower, but I've never been able to announce the arrival of a rainbow!

Sarah: Dear Gustave, my trip to America with Marie Colombier was, between us, a succession of storms and rainbows!

Sarah: Perhaps, as a child, Maurice would have enjoyed playing among these strange rocks...

Gustave: I think the same would have been true for the 5 of mine...

The rocks of Les Mourres

The rocks that make up Les Mourres were formed in a lacustrine environment around 25 million years ago. The spectacular basin-like shapes are thought to have resulted from the more recent necrosis of the central part of the algal islets.

Gustave: What a perfect setting for Musset's May Nights!

Sarah: Yes, with music by Reynaldo Hahn...

Sarah: This watchtower would have been very useful on Belle-île before the Vauban fort...

Gustave: These stones seem to me to be related to those of the château in Allemagne-en-Provence.

Manosque

Situated on the right bank of the Durance, the town where Jean Giono was born is a land of art and culture. Full of charm,
this thousand-year-old town has a rich past, with each period
has left its mark and its style.

Gustave : My friend, with these 4 doors the city opens up to some interesting perspectives.

Sarah : Gustave, this entrance would have looked great in Ruy Blas.

Sarah: Very dear, this is a star. At the convent I used to make paper flowers for the Virgin Mary.

Gustave: Dear Sarah, I was asked to design the footbridge for the Pont de la Vierge in Biarritz.

Gustave: Sarah, I think that if I had been asked, I would have been proud to build a bridge here

Sarah : Gustave, Théodore Deck dedicated a dish to me, but it was Sèvres, not Moustiers...

Sarah: It reminds me of the poster for Gismonda, by Mucha, on which I'm holding an olive branch.

Gustave: Dear Sarah, that was at Christmas 1894, the year they proposed to modify or dismantle my tower!

Olive trees

The olive trees of Haute-Provence, mainly of the Aglandau variety, produce an oil which is characterised by a green fruity taste, which in the language of the initiated means that it gives off scents of artichoke, green grass, pears...

Gustave: This landscape brings back memories of various structures I built in Provence.

Sarah: I could have asked Clairin to paint me in the middle of these olive trees, as he did at Belle-Île-en-Mer.

Sarah: George Sand had a passion for botany, and gathered wild lavender for her herbarium.

Gustave: I designed the Grasse factory for a leading aromatic products company.

Lavender

There are two species grown in Provence: lavender and
lavandin. True or fine lavender, Lavandula angustifolia,
is the noblest of lavenders.
the noblest of lavenders, and its essential oil has enjoyed
since 1981: ‘Huile essentielle de lavande de Haute-Provence’.
from Haute-Provence Alps ’.

Gustave: Sarah, flowers are at home here. In Paris, on the Ile de la Cité, I designed the metal pavilions of the flower market.

Sarah: Jean Richepin tells us in Les Fleurs: The honeysuckle with its pinkish-white corals,
Lavender, iris, thyme, these cassolettes. All the sweet peas, these butterflies.

Sarah: Gustave, Jean Cocteau once wrote about me, ‘and her sublime performance, which shattered the frames, was a fainting cut by cries of rage’. I can understand his choice of words!

Gustave: Sarah, it's also worth noting that the Gorges du Verdon are the largest canyon in Europe.

Point Sublime

Point Sublime is located on the right bank of the Gorges du Verdon, on the D952, below the village of Rougon in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. The Point Sublime offers a breathtaking view of the entrance to the Gorges du Verdon, the Couloir Samson, one of the most remarkable sites in the touristy Pays du Verdon.

Gustave: My friend, look at these cliffs which are 400 metres high, my tower was only 300...

Sarah: I love the sea and the plains, but I don't like mountains or forests. Mountains crush me.
Forests suffocate me. I need the horizon as far as the eye can see and the sky as far as the eye can dream.

Sarah: My dear Gustave, Vauban was involved in the development of this citadel,
and I bought and converted an old Vauban fort on Belle-Île-en-Mer.

Gustave: My dearest Sarah, I think you could say that Vauban was to military architecture
what I was to metal architecture!

The citadel of Sisteron

The citadel of Sisteron and the discovery of its 800 years of architecture
of architecture and history.
From the rocky outcrop on which it stands, visitors can enjoy
one of the most beautiful panoramas in Haute-Provence.

Gustave: My friend, you should know that I helped Charles Garnier to build the Ateliers Berthier to house the Paris Opera's scenery workshops.

Sarah: There's no doubt that this view of the Citadelle would have been a good backdrop for an opera or theatre.