Albert Ciocca in Le Contadour (04)

On the interpretation plaque opposite the Mairie in Le Contadour, it notes the 'Théâtre du Berger Aubert. En hommage à Albert Ciocca, berger 'Poète'. Né à Marseille en 1894, décédé à Banon en 1963.' Hubert Blond discovered the pencilled work of Albert Ciocca (1894-1963), the 'shepherd poet',  on the stones of a number of sheepfolds: they tell, for instance, of unattainable love and the hatred for his work. Blond's Parcours poétiques du berger Albert, was published in 2012, and tells the story of his search for these writings and his findings on the man. In 2012 the commune Redortiers-La Contadour built this théâtre as a homage to shepherds, and Albert in particular. Ciocca was buried in a communal grave in Banon. (The windmill behind the photo is not that of 'Giono's mill', as is commonly believed.)

My Albert Ciocca posts:
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Hubert Blond: Parcours poétiques du Berger Albert
Albert Ciocca in Le Contadour

The Observatory, Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire (04)

Marcel de Kerolyr (1873-) began his working life as a violinist and married a singer whom he accompanied in Europe. They lived in Nice and he and his wife are said to have witnessed the accidental strangulation of Isidore Duncan in 1927. His wife lost her voice and, after subsisting on menial jobs, de Kerolyr visited the observatory in Nice and resolved to devote himself to astrophotography. He began in Digne, moved to Forcalquier, and probably died in 1969. Jean Giono's ‎Le Poids du ciel (1938) contains thirty-two astrophotographs made by Kerolyr.‎ (He also joined in with Giono's Contadour 'utopia').