We picked up our petit déjeuner from the reception, made our cup of tea and sat down to enjoy a relaxing morning. We had decided since it was our anniversary, that we should have a croissant and a pain au chocolat each and really treat ourselves. Anoop called the campsite in Forcalquier to make a reservation so that we didn't have to rush off in hopes that they had a spot. He did the whole call in French, including paying the deposit, which was very impressive. We then enjoyed our breaky and tea before getting ready to head off. Anoop had the bikes off and thought it would be good to take a photo of the back seat of the car on a day when we are moving campsites. It seems to be getting messier and messier each day as we buy a few more souvenirs and don’t have anywhere else for them to go! We checked out of camp with enough time to put some air in our tires and drive to our next campsite before they closed for lunch. The air stations here are much easier than the ones at the gas stations at home. The gauge is on the machine and once it is attached, you just push a button until the gauge shows your desired psi.

We arrived in Forcalquier just before lunch which was great since we were able to pick a spot and settle in. A night in a campsite is usually counted from noon to noon so the closer you arrive to noon, the better selection you have. There weren’t a lot of spots with shade available, so we wandered around trying to decide which one might be best. We eventually decided on a very shady spot, but one that was also close to reception and the bar area. We had to choose between lots of shade and a bit more noise, and hoped that we made an ok choice. We set up and had lunch and then went for a swim. The pool was much smaller than at the previous campsite and was packed. There seemed to be a lot more families at this site which means more balls, inflatables, and people leaping in off the sides. We found a few chairs left and settled in to read and do a puzzle or two. When there were just too many people in the pool we headed back to camp to shower and wander in to town. We had hoped to find a restaurant to go out for dinner and so were looking at menus on the way. We checked out all the top recommendations on trip advisor which we have come to refer to a lot for restaurants. We wandered around and found one that had a great looking menu – they only had 3 choices, but they all looked good. It wasn’t quite dinner time so we continued on our way, admiring all the wrought iron work on the balconies. At 7 we decided we were ready to eat and walked back to the restaurant only to find out that they were fully booked! We were disappointed, but made a reservation for the following night. Instead we headed back to the pizzeria we had seen on our way in and ordered two large pizzas to take back to camp. It turned out that they were enormous and one would have been plenty! They were delicious and even though we couldn’t finish them, they would be excellent eaten cold for lunch the next day.

Monday morning we woke up and headed in to the market. This was supposed to be the largest market in the area with 400 stalls and we were quite excited to check it out. The fruit and veggie stalls have definitely grown in size since the spring markets and you can tell exactly what is in season by the sheer volume of it all. Melons, apricots, peaches, tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant, garlic and basil are only a few of the items that were for sale. We started off by wandering by and checking out what all that the stalls had for sale and what the prices were. We have been to so many markets now that we have a fairly good idea of what melons, cherries, apricots etc. generally go for. We decided to do our fruit and veg shopping at the end so that we didn’t have to carry it all around with us. We saw the soap vendor from Lourmarin and recognized his display as soon as we walked by. We have recognized quite a few vendors from various markets we’ve been to as they travel around to the many weekly markets in the region. We eventually made our way back to the fruit and veg to pick up some melons, grape juice, and apricots. We were a bit disappointed by this market compared to others we’ve been to since there were a lot of clothes vendors and a lot more junky stuff than usual. We returned to camp and went straight for the pool since it was so hot out. We decided that if we swam over the usual lunch time (12-2pm), there might not be so many people and sure enough, there were only 10 or so people compared to the 30 or so the day before. We enjoyed the pool until the crowds started arriving and then headed back for a light lunch.

We headed back into town just before dinner and double checked the menu. The quail in honey and apricot sauce from the day before was off the menu, much to our disappointment, but there were other tasty choices instead. I chose the rosemary lemon chicken and Anoop went for the ground lamb with peppers and eggplant. We ordered six escargots in individual bread shells to start since it was just a two course meal. Or at least we thought! After we had ordered they brought out a small plate with gazpacho, tapenade and a slice of terrine. We were quite surprised since it didn’t mention a starter on the menu and were happy since our two course dinner was now three! The escargots were delicious since the shell was edible and you didn’t lose any garlic, parsley or butter when tipping them out. Our mains were also very tasty and we thought that they were typical regional dishes that could have been cooked for family. For dessert we had a moist chocolate cake with peaches in it which was also delicious. We left feeling pleasantly full and glad that it hadn’t been a very heavy meal since it was so hot out. We made a reservation for Wednesday night and thought we could check out their menu again and see if they had anything different to try out.

Tuesday we spent most of the day relaxing in camp, catching up on blogs and swimming. In the evening once it had cooled down a bit, we walked in to town to go up to the chapel at the top of the hill. The carillon was quite neat and you could see all the bells from below. On Sundays, there is a half hour concert when the bells are played and we could hear them from camp when we had arrived a couple of days ago. We had the viewpoint almost entirely to ourselves and we looked at the orientation table and walked around the chapel before heading back down. We picked up a bottle of strawberry pear limonade (sort of like sprite) which we thought would be quite good. It turned out that it looked better than it tasted, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. That night we regretted our choice of campsite near the bar… The campsite had lots of "animations" that kept its campers entertained throughout the day. Many of the activities went on until the quiet hours started at 11 pm. However, most people don’t just finish their drink at 11 when the bar closes and head back to camp – they stand around chatting which is not great when you are camped on the other side of the hedge. We lay awake, with Anoop getting more and more frustrated which was very unusual for him since he can usually sleep through anything. He got up at one point and asked one group to go back since it was after midnight; when they didn’t move, he rang the bell outside the reception to ask the campsite people to deal with the issue. Eventually they departed, but were soon replaced with another group. This one was even louder and decided that ping pong might be fun at 1 am. At this point Anoop again headed out to point indignantly at his watch, careful not to slam the van door and wake up the other neighbours in case they were managing to get any sleep. They completely ignored him and so he rang the bell again only to have the campsite guy say he had already told them twice to go back to their site. Anoop was most irritated at this point and said that he should tell them again then. They took off shortly after that when they saw that Anoop was at the door talking to the guy. On his way back to camp, he ditched the ping pong paddles in a bush somewhere in case they got any more ideas. We were finally able to sleep and I think Anoop had a better understanding of poor Mom’s nightly struggles to get to sleep at a decent hour.

Wednesday morning we set off early on an easy hike out to the Mourres rock formations. We walked past lots of wild lavender growing in clumps and other typical Provence shrubs such as juniper. We arrived at the rocks which had been formed 25 million years ago when islands of water plants and primitive seaweed were trapped in the limestone, building the mounds into different shapes and eventually evolving into rocks. They were quite interesting formations, some tall and wide, others tall and thin, some with arches and others off by themselves. We spotted a cicada on a branch that didn’t go quiet when we approached. We were able to get a video of it “singing” and even though it is somewhat shaky (because we had to use our zoom lens), at least it you can clearly see it. We continued on through the rest of the loop, stopping at the interesting formations and admiring the view. It was rather hazy in the distance because it was so hot out and we hoped that there would be a bit of a rain before our hot air ballooning the next day. We returned to camp the same way we had come and were glad that it was partially shaded. We again spent the rest of the day at the pool and in camp until just before 7 pm. We walked in to town once again to see what the menu was for the evening at the restaurant; unfortunately it was two lamb dishes and a beef dish which didn’t interest us. Anoop popped in to cancel our reservation and we instead returned for a pizza – this time we just ordered the one! When we got back to camp the skies just opened up in a downpour that lasted most of the rest of the evening. We holed up in the van, enjoying our pizza and glad that the rain was keeping all the noise makers away from the ping pong and bar area. We headed off to bed a bit earlier knowing that we had an early start the next day.