There were several possible routes between Fourcalquier and Moustiers-Ste-Marie, all involving some red (international and national road network) and yellow (interregional and less congested road), with stretches of "2 wide lanes" and "2 lanes" in each colour. I'm not sure how Michelin determines these, however.
We started on a red road, D 4100 to Mane. It was pretty quiet, but then we were rolling by 6:30 a.m. We turned onto a wide yellow road, D 13, and it was okay too. We found a reasonable-looking open café near St-Maime and stopped for breakfast. When we got back on the road, though, the traffic had picked up considerably and was very heavy all the way to Volx. This entire stretch of D 13 is noted as a "scenic route" by green highlighting, but I didn't think so, even without the traffic.
From Volx to La Brillane we were on a wide red road and it was awful, but there was not alternative for this 5 km stretch and we had expected it. We turned onto a yellow road to cross the Durance River and the traffic remained heavy through Oraison but on the other side of this town and it's weekly market, it finally died down.
Decision time: should we take the narrow yellow road through Valensole to Riez, with its "steep hill" arrows (in both directions!) and no green highlighting, then on to Moustiers-Ste-Marie? Or should we take the yellow road that follows the Asse River to Bras d'Asse and join the green-highlighted red road to Puimoisson, then the yellow D 56 "shortcut" to join the red D 952 to Moustiers-Ste-Marie?
We chose the second option because the day was heating up and we thought that, despite our morning experience, yellow roads were preferable to red. As it turned out, we found D 907 along the Asse River to be scenic with little traffic.
Near Bras-d'Asse. Not the best composition, but I wanted to capture the fields of sunflowers and lavender in bloom at the same time.
We chose a campground near Moustiers-Ste-Marie, at the bottom of the hill. A 700 m walk to the village, the campground lady said. Yeah, 700 in plan and maybe half that in elevation! By the time we'd set up, cleaned up, and walked up, we were too late for a restaurant lunch. We found a bistro that was still serving and had salads, thinking we would have another meal later. As it turned out, after walking around the village and up to Notre-Dame de Beauvoir, we just had burgers from the campground food truck, available without a climb.
Me with my late-lunch salad. Al had the same and they arrived before I'd finished my apéritif, though Al had made better progress with his beer. That's pear sorbet in the little cups on the plates. I've never had sorbet with salad before.
Looking down at the path to Notre-Dame de Beauvoir from the chapel. It's paved with cobbles that are so smooth from use that they are actually quite slippery, especially near the handrails.
The wood porch of the chapel has a glazed flat tile roof. All other roofs in the village are the usual Mediterranean half-cylindrical unglazed tiles. I didn't take any photos inside because there were people praying. In fact, on the way down I saw a woman walking up barefoot and carrying her sandals, and I don't think it was because it was easier that way.
