Things to see and do France

The Martigues Tourist Office team is also present in the heart of the village of La Couronne during the summer season. Tourist advisors are on hand in La Couronne's market square to answer visitors' queries about accommodation, events, restaurants and summer tips. Parking is free, and the office is accessible to the disabled.

Climbing up to the great bare summits of the Lure mountain is a must during your stay in the area. Dominating the Pays de Forcalquier on its southern side and the deep Jabron valley on its northern side, classified as a Unesco Biosphere Reserve, the Lure mountain culminates at 1,826 m and extends over a length of about fifty kilometres. A picturesque road allows you to cross it from one side to the other, passing by the resort, much to the delight of seasoned cyclists. It is entirely reserved for them on Mondays in summer. Hiking trails also allow you to get there on foot, through the woods, from the small village of Saint-Etienne-les-Orgues. Once you are up there, you will enjoy an exceptional 360° panorama of varied landscapes: Mont Ventoux, Vercors, Cévennes, Southern Alps and even, if the sky is clear, the Mediterranean coast. Between the Southern Alps and the Mediterranean, an exceptional vegetation has developed whose flora, long exploited, is today left to the appreciation of numerous flocks of sheep. A little lower down (around 1,600 m), the resort of Lure offers themed hiking trails (5 senses, planets...) and numerous activities throughout the seasons: scooters on grass, tubbing (downhill on inflatable buoys), mountain biking, astronomy sessions in the summer, sledging, snowshoeing, skiing... in winter. Note: it is possible to eat and sleep on site.

In Haute-Provence, pigeon lofts are numerous and varied. The Bourrelles dovecote, which is particularly large, is a magnificent architectural testimony to a rural breeding activity that was once of prime economic importance. It is located in the magnificent olive-growing estate of Moulin Arrizi. Entirely restored by its owners, the association "Les Amis des Mées" has installed in the lower room a mini-ecomuseum of the pigeon houses of Haute-Provence. In the upper part, the pigeons continue to live and coo.

This original museum, housed in the chapel of the former 17th century Visitandine convent, traces the evolution of time measurement through the presentation of instruments, objects and documents that are often rare, sometimes unique. A Foucault pendulum and a reproduction of the Al Jazari clepsydra (a Persian hydraulic clock from the 12th century) are among its highlights. The Route du Temps, from Sisteron to Beynes (80 km) is the logical complement to discover the geological traces of the Earth's history.

Standing in the middle of the field, these four superb columns in grey monolithic granite, ending in white marble Corinthian capitals and surmounted by a sculpted architrave, are the remains of a temple probably erected to the glory of Apollo, probably at the very end of the 1st century BC. A majestic testimony to the city founded by the Emperor Augustus, which was called civitas Julia Augusta Reiorum Apollinaris. A signpost recalls their origins and shows what the ancient temple was, where the columns at its entrance were located.

The baptistery is a building annexed to a church and intended above all for baptisms. Part of a large episcopal group erected on the remains of ancient Roman baths, the baptistery was built in the^5th century AD. Once surrounded by a portico, it has been reworked and restored over the years. It remains one of the few moving testimonies of this period, since the seat of the bishopric was dismantled during the French Revolution. Further east, some remains of the early Christian cathedral remain.