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Monday, Oct 15th, 2007
After two much appreciated rest days in Moustiers, during which Dad and Oliver arrived, we set off around 10AM on our way to Riez. Another perfect hiking day, sunny but not too warm. The hike started with a climb of about 220m up out of the Moustiers valley and onto the Plateau de Valensoie. Peanuts to those who strove with the Alps, but quite significant for the Florida-adapted (Dad) and the unprepared (Ollie).
From the top we could see back to mountains, which stretch without a break all the way from here to the Po plain in Italy. They looked beautiful, impressive, even hyperbolically adjectival, but I felt absolutely no urge to go back into them. Maybe in a month or so, but not now.
The Plateau is flat agricultural land with many fields of lavender, which although not in flower were still fragrant in the hand. We walked across it at a comfortable pace, talking of this and that. Lunch at the village of Roumoules was in an unprepossessing roadside restaurant that, however, served excellent food (it's in France, after all), and there remained under two hours until we reached the Chateau de Pontfrac, where we were to spend the night.
A day, when all was said and done, like the landscape: easy, pleasant, congenial.
