Mane

Mane is a village of about 1,400 in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, 4 km south of Forcalquier. It has the oldest fortified citadel in the department on the hill above it, and two of the best buildings in the region just outside it.

Salagon

The priory of Salagon, on the edge of the village, is a Romanesque church of the twelfth century built over a Gallo-Roman site, with a monastic range added later. It is now an ethnological museum of Haute-Provence — but the reason to come is the gardens.

There are several, each making an argument: a medieval garden of the plants a monastery would have grown; a garden of scents and touch; a garden of village plants; and a collection of the useful and medicinal flora of the region, laid out as a working reference rather than as decoration. Around 1,700 species are grown.

The church itself is worth the visit on its own — a plain apse, a carved portal, and the Roman stones reused in the walls visible if you look.

The citadel

The rocher de Mane carries a fortified enclosure with concentric walls, the oldest in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and one of the very few surviving examples of a fortified refuge — the whole population went inside it in a raid, with their animals. It is a steep fifteen minutes up from the village and the view runs to the Lure mountain.

Château de Sauvan

Two kilometres out, an eighteenth-century château of a kind you do not expect this far into the hills: a classical block of eleven bays, so regular in plan that it is known locally as le petit Trianon provençal. Built 1719–1725, listed, still furnished, and open for guided tours in season. Peacocks on the lawn.

The village

• The old centre — stepped lanes below the rock, with fountains and washhouses
• Église Saint-André — with a Romanesque core
• Chapelle Saint-Pierre
• Several eighteenth-century bastides in the countryside around, from the same prosperous moment as Sauvan

Getting there

• By car — on the D4100 between Forcalquier and Saint-Maime. Forcalquier 5 minutes, Manosque 20, Aix an hour. See parking in France.
• By bus — services on the Forcalquier–Manosque line.
• By train — nearest station Manosque-Gréoux, 20 km.

Around

• Forcalquier — 4 km, and the Monday market is one of the best in Provence
• Lurs — 20 minutes, on its ridge
• Observatoire de Haute-Provence — 15 minutes at Saint-Michel, where the first exoplanet round a sun-like star was found in 1995
• Montagne de Lure — the long bare ridge north, for walking
• Manosque — 20 minutes

When to go

May, June and September. The Salagon gardens are at their best in late spring and early summer; they close for the winter, as does Sauvan, so check dates before making the trip out of season.

See Provence.

Photo credits

Photographs on this page come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences:

• Notre-Dame de Salagon — Thérèse Gaigé, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
• The gardens and the village — Véronique Pagnier, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

Other places on this site within easy reach, as the crow flies:

• Valensole — 21 km
• Colorado Provençal — 22 km
• Riez — 29 km
• Apt — 30 km
• Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt — 31 km
• Sault — 31 km

Weather in Mane

Updated: 20 October 2026