Perched on the slopes of the Lure mountains, looking south into the Luberon Valley, just a mile north of the Via Domitia, the Roman road that linked Spain with Italy, sits a charming and ancient village of stone houses forming a sinuous, harmonious assemblage of streets and public spaces that corresponds perfectly to the dynamic local topography and a collective desire to create beauty out of multiple basic human needs over many generations.
The Place de la Fontaine defines the town which has a population of just over 1000. The fourteenth century church of St Michel forms the northern edge of the square. Beyond the stone octagonal fountain, a pungent waft of provencal herbs comes from a charming restaurant in the corner of the square where Gilles and Joanne prepare excellent local cuisine – served, in the summer, under the canopy of a vast centuries old lime tree. Above the square sits the twelfth century chapel of St Jean that dominates the silhouette of the town and whose bells ring out to the outlying farms in the surrounding countryside. From there, can be seen the domes of the astronomic observatory and, in winter, the snow-fringed peaks of the ‘Alpes de Lumierè’ that dominate the eastern horizon. In June, fragrant fields of lavender cover the landscape and hint at the richness underlying this famous, secret and arid region.
The dry air of St Michel gives very clear skies, amongst the clearest in France, making this an obvious location for one of the most important astronomic observatories in Europe. The night skies are dramatic and during the day the presence of sundials in the village adds a certain mystical and scientific air to the hot south-facing walls of some village houses and reveals a special relationship between the inhabitants and their sky.
Olive trees and stone terraced walls define the southern slopes of the village. Entering from the south there is a second square, just outside the remains of the medieval ramparts. At its eastern end, beyond the dignified war memorial, sits the mairie or town hall, the administrative hub of the Commune. Here the mayor André Peta and his delightful staff always seem to be available and add a refreshing human touch to local authority administration.
Markets and festivals take place here throughout the year and local cheeses have customers coming from afar. The Fromage-de-Banon is particularly good. Fish is sold from a refrigerated van in the square, straight from the fishing boats in Marseille, which is only an hour’s drive south. No supermarket here, but lots of good local produce.
The austere stone facades of the village houses with their roman tiled roofs seem to have changed little over the course of two millennia and exhibit a certain minimalist charm that is born out of the noble craft of building applied to essential living and a deep empathy for the essentially social and hence urban nature of man. Some houses exhibit a flourish of carved stone detail that says more about the rich architectural heritage of the region than it does about wealth or stylistic pretentions: Roman bridges, romanesque monasteries, medieval priories, renaissance fortresses, walled towns and beautiful churches dot the surrounding landscape between the lush mountains to the north and the river Durance that defines the eastern edge of the Luberon.
Certain architectural details demonstrate cultural affiliation with the elegant stone city of Aix-en-Provence, which lies just 45 kilometres to the south, while others attest to cultured inhabitants from the age of Louis XIV: stone-mullioned casement windows abound from the second half of the seventeenth century, but these can be found in the cluster of other fine villages nearby, as well as at the twelth century Priory of Salagon which is just two kilometres east of St Michel, along the road towards Forcalquier.
Dry stone walls, lime render, beautifully designed bespoke forged ironwork all interspersed with ashlar and random stone construction make for an environment where every corner reveals a special crafted detail. Local stone quarries still produce blocks of stone, some after two millennia, but the steady trickle of material for repair works accounts for part of the local economy and keeps the building traditions alive that have surely demonstrated their minimal carbon footprint and eminently sustainable credentials.

Liam O’Connor is an Architect and teacher whose current projects include a memorial to the 55,000 airmen of Bomber Command killed in the Second World War, to be located at Hyde Park Corner.

AT207/April 10 p72.