Banon (French pronunciation: [banɔ̃]) is a commune in the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south-eastern France.

Access to the commune is by the D950 road from Revest-du-Bion in the north-west which passes through the village and continues south-east to Limans.

[4] Depressions, oriented SSW-NNE and NNW-SSE are formed of marl and sandstone from the Upper Cretaceous period.

The Largue flows from the north down the eastern side of the commune and continues south to join the Durance east of Manosque.

[7] Banon is located in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and enjoys an interior Mediterranean climate with summers hot and dry but the winters are cool and marked by frequent frosts.

According to Charles Rostaing the name is formed from the oronymic root Ban meaning "horn" or "point".

The terrain is very present: the Pié d'Enroux is formed from a local evolution of the Latin podium meaning "height".

The Coueste Chaude (to the west of the village) is on the slope of a mountain, Occitan derived from the French côte.

Amplified by deforestation, the same erosion moves large quantities of stones from the mountain slopes and deposits them on the plains, sometimes covering arable land: this is the origin of the name of Gravières south of the village.

[17] The hill overlooking the village is called Le Défens: this is an area, owned by the lord or the community, where herds were banned.

[17] Le Clos de Gardon is a cultivable area where the material from road ballasting was used to enclose the fields and meadows with a dry stone wall.

[17] Les Chastellas was a fortification at high altitude[17] (which has been confirmed by excavations, see below) and La Tuilerie was a tile production workshop prior to the 18th century (before the term tuilière was used).

The Sogiontiques were federated to the Vocontii and, after the Gallic Wars, they were attached with them to the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis (now Narbonne).

[23] Romanisation can be seen in places such as the villas of Fouent-Crema: there were several houses and workshops or a Gallo-Roman hamlet settled on the plains north-east of Banon in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

[24] The area then became a necropolis and the location of the inhabitants for this period has not been determined either in the immediate vicinity or on the heights.

[24] While the south-east of Gaul was Burgundian land, the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric the Great, conquered the region between the Durance and the Rhône as well as Isère in 510.

In order to reconcile with the Burgundian king Godomar III, the Ostrogoth Regent Amalasuntha gave him the territory.

[25] While Chastelard was abandoned, there remained a visual (in the landscape) and symbolic (in attitudes) cue in that the border with the neighbouring community of Lardiers was fixed along the side of the oppidum in a process that seemed common.

After the failure of the insurrection severe repression continued against those who defended the Republic: 17 inhabitants of Banon were brought before the Joint Committee and the majority were sentenced to exile in Algeria.

The scattered settlements led to doubling of the facilities with, in 1863, two schools installed in the main town and the village of Largue at the east and west extremities of the commune.

[34] The commune benefited from grants from the second Duruy Law (1877) to rebuild the Largue village school and to build a new one at Granges de Dauban.

[26] In 1905 a water jet fountain[26] sourced from the Brieux and fed by an underground aqueduct 3 km long[36] was built in the new village.

Thereafter all new buildings, private or public, were built in the lower village (a church in 1911, a hospital in 1930) and, in 1950, the Orchards began to be converted to housing zones.

In 1954, after more than a century of decline, the town had lost over half of its population relative to its historical high in 1841.

[50] Banon has become famous for its small goat cheeses wrapped in dry chestnut leaves and tied with raffia strings.

Banon cheese is the only appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

[52] The village is notable for one of the largest independent bookstores in France, Le Bleuet, which offers more than 100,000 titles on their shelves.

The building stands on the site of a former hospital built by donors belonging to old local families.