Day 10. Forcalquier to Moustiers-Sainte- Marie

Laughing in Riez

A shorter day, starting with a long descent to the Durance valley and then across a landscape of lavender fields and wooded valleys. My first stop was in Oraison, where I sat down in a café before noticing that the rival establishment across the road was called La Fringale. My colloquial French is not much good but I do know that la fringale is the French equivalent of ‘the bonk’ so this might have been a more appropriate pit-stop. I picked up a superb croissant aux amandes from the nearby bakers which won the prize for the best patisserie of the trip and got me up the 250 m climb onto the Valensole plateau without suffering from la fringale.

An undulating ride led me to Riez where I was indeed laughing when I discovered that the main drag featured not only a café that would sell me a drink rather than a 3-course lunch, but also a boulangerie that was open at 1pm where I picked up a delicious tarte aux pommes. 

After lunch I followed the main road up a gentle incline to the high point of the day at just over 700 m. Thunder rumbled in the distance over the Verdon Gorge to remind me that my rain jacket had been left in the car, but the rain held off for a fast descent before a little sting in the tail on the steep ascent up to Moustiers where I found Les already ensconced in our hotel.

Some very heavy showers gave the first rain of the trip, but eased off to allow us to explore the town. The hotel restaurant was closed but the patron recommended a couple of other places. They were also closed.  Reluctantly (or maybe not) we made our way to the most expensive place in town, where Liz and I had dined when we were here back in November. It was worth it - this was one of the best meals of the trip, which included this beautifully presented starter of rillettes de lapin.

Distance today 62 km
Total distance 739 km.