Moustiers Sainte Marie

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie lies in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department. The village is built against a mountainside and is located in the beautiful Unesco nature reserve Geopark Haute-Provence. Moustiers was founded around the fifth century by the monks of Lérins near Cannes. The spot was well chosen: located on an elevation and next to rocks that gave shelter from the north wind. From the village there was a good view and next to the village there was a lot of fertile land. During your holiday in the south of France, you should visit the village. The road to Moustiers is beautiful in itself, you will pass the Lac de Sainte Croix and you can see the Gorges du Verdon. Once you arrive in Moustiers, everyone immediately notices the mysterious Gold Star hanging between two rocks. To get a good look at everything in Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, you should go for a ride on the little train that runs through the village.

Visit Moustiers during your holiday

Take a day to visit Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, one of the "Plus Beaux Villages de France". The Provençal influences are very noticeable. You can smell the lavender scent everywhere you go. You can go for a walk through the narrow streets, over the pretty squares with old plane trees and past the houses with typical terracotta roof tiles. The village is located on the two sides of a gorge. Water flows through the gorge from a spring from the hills. In Moustiers you will see shops selling the famous Faience pottery. You can find more information about this type of pottery in the pottery museum. Visit the beautiful church and take a walk to the chapel under the golden star. After you have explored the village, you can rest on one of the terraces of one of the many restaurants such as La Bastide de Moustiers or Le Belvédère, which provide beautiful views.

Sights

Gold Star
Narrow streets and squares
Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption
Notre-Dame-de-Beauvoir
Faience pottery
Pottery Museum
Lac Sainte Croix

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Moustiers and the gold star

Moustiers is known for the golden star that hangs over the Rioul gorge. The golden star hangs right above the church "Notre Dame de Beauvoir". A sturdy chain with a gold star is suspended between the two huge and steep rocks that stand on both sides of the gorge. It is still unknown who hung the gold star there and for what reason. There are two legends that are told in Moustiers. The first is the story of Knight Blacas who was captured by the Arabs during one of the Crusades to the Holy Land. He made a vow that if he saw his village Moustiers again, he would erect a monument to Mary. The second legend is that two lovers of hostile families ended their lives together because of their love and that the star was hung as a reminder of this.

Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption

The Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption stands in the middle of the village. It was built in the 12th century in Lombard Romanesque style. In later centuries, the church was completed in Gothic style by order of Cardinal Peter Pratis. You can see the four-storey Italian bell tower built with golden-brown peat stone from far away. It is striking that the choir is not built in a straight line with the nave. The altar in the church has a sarcophagus from the fourth century as a base, with an image of the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea.

Notre-Dame-de-Beauvoir

In the middle of the gorge that separates the village and right under the golden star stands the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Beauvoir, built in Carolingian times. This can be reached from the village via a footpath of 262 steps. It is the last part of a well-known pilgrimage route. Along the way you will pass a waterfall and once at the top there is a beautiful view over the red roofs of the village, the Lac de Sainte Croix, the valley of Maire and the plateau of Valensole. You can see the golden star for the churches square.

Moustiers Sainte Marie 30 gouden ster Frankrijk Provence vakantie plus beaux village faience.jpg

Moustiers Sainte Marie 10 gouden ster Frankrijk Provence vakantie plus beaux village faience.jpg

Faience pottery in Moustiers

During your visit to Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, you will see many shops selling pottery. This special faience pottery or ceramic resembles Chinese porcelain and comes from Moustiers, the center of this beautiful and world-famous pottery. In 1668, the local potter Pierre Clérissy learned how to make these so-called stannifer/stanniferous ceramics from a monk from Faenza, Italy. From 1689 onwards, the well-known white and blue tableware was made. Later, around 1710, the Berain decoration followedand the heyday arose. In the following century this pottery became less and less popular and in 1874 the last factory was closed. The village encountered a second period of prosperity from 1927 onwards at the hands of Marcel Provence. Moustiers is still known for its faience pottery and many workshops are still organized in the village. There is even a ceramics museum, near the town hall.

Gorges du Verdon

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie is located near the world-famous Gorges du Verdon. This is the largest gorge in Europe with a length of about 25km and a depth of about 300m. Rocks tower up to 700m above the gorge resulting in a height difference of about 1km between the summit and the gorge. This is a popular region for mountaineers. People also do water sports activities on the water in the gorge.

Lac de Sainte Croix

In 1973, a dam was built in the Verdon River , creating a large reservoir. As a result, the village of Les-Salles-sur-Verdon was flooded and was later rebuilt on its banks. The Lac de Sainte Croix is now one of the largest reservoirs in France. There are various pretty villages around the lake and there are also beaches where you can swim, sail and rent a pedal boat.