The last stop of the day was L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. By the time I reached this lovely little town, I was starving so I took a seat at one of the many riverside cafes and had some lunch. I spent some time wandering through some of the antique shops that the town is known for, and then did the tourist walk, stopping in the gorgeous church first.
I went back to the camper around 4pm when my parking ticket expired. It was so hot, but thankfully I'd parked under some shade. However, when I went to start the car, nothing happened. I tried again - nothing. I tried to stay calm, popped the hood, had a cursory look to see if anything looked out of place (that's the best I can do...), changed gear and tried it again. NOTHING. Time to call the RAC. Thankfully, the girl who answered was French and funnily enough, she was from near where I was stranded, which was good as I didn't really know where I was. She assured me that a mechanic was on his way. I went back into town to the tourist office - I didn't know what to do with my parking ticket that I had just paid for. But the kind girl at the office triggered me and I started getting wobbly-voiced and teary. How embarrassing. She was so kind, I wish I had thanked her properly. I went back to the van and waited.
The mechanic turned up after about 1.5 hours. After poking around and testing several things, he eventually whacked the starter motor with a hammer and it started. I don't think I've ever been so happy (and relieved)! With it finally running, I paid for my parking and drove off, heading for Gordes to spend the night.
I got to the caravan park in Gordes at about 6:30pm after driving up some very steep and narrow roads! It was an amazing drive. And honestly, of my whole trip, this was the most stunning caravan park I went to. It was right on top of the mountain and had a view of the whole valley. When the sun started going down, I went for a walk to the town to try to catch the sunset on the buildings. I was a bit too late, but I did catch the sun going down on the Luberon valley. Apologies for all the photos, it was just so beautiful... and definitely what I needed after a crazy, full-on, stressful day.