Lavender Love: Lavande et Lavandin

Back on the road for another highlight of the trip – Lavender fields and France music festival.

Often, the sound of Provence triggers an image of purple fields with blooming lavender flowers. It is probably every girls’ dream to visit Provence during lavender season (Jul-Aug).  

First up, to the museum of lavender at Coustellet to learn a little more about the different breeds of lavender and the harvest process.

We learned that there are actually 3 types of lavenders from the museum – true lavender (the high-end pure breed), spike lavender and lavandin (the lower end hybrid flower). Most of the essence with health and beauty benefits come from true lavender which can only grow in high altitude above 800m sea-level. Whereas the hybrid lavandin can be easily grown on lower ground and typically used in household fragrances like your lavender flavoured washing powders. Therefore if you are paying more for lavender fragrances, make sure to verify it is from true lavender and not lavandin!

explaining the distillation process

types of lavender

The museum also has a gift shop that sells products from Le Château du Bois, which is the sponsor for the museum. From there you can get good lavender essence without travelling all the way to their farm in the village of Lagarde d’Apt.  For the tech-savvy, there is free wifi available at the gift shop for you to “check-in” on social media.

Our lunch was at Cavaillon which is famous for their melons.

Quick stop for lunch

Entering the mountainous region in Vaucluse, one of the classic Provençal town built all from stones is Gordes. It is perched on the side of a cliff and recognised as one of the beautiful villages of France.

impressive looking hilltop fortified town

Nearby Gordes is Abbaye Senanque, which is also famous for its lavender fields that flank the monastery. The monastery itself is open for public tour only during allocated time slots, hence it is essential to check the daily tour timing and make a booking in advance.

will be much nicer if the lavenders are in full bloom

In order to see lavande (and not just lavandin), we drove to the higher grounds of Provence towards Mont Ventoux.  It was a long winding journey up the mountain, but you are rewarded with views of the plateaus in shades of purple. The roads up the mountain are also popular training ground for cyclists as it has been featured several times as part of the Tour de France route.

Finally we arrived at the one of the best places to see lavender fields – Sault.

first glimpse of purple heaven

patches of shades of purple

Small village of Sault

Where to eat:

Sault is a really small town and there is hardly much choice when it comes to eating out. Our B&B does not offer dinner options and Lydie suggested that our best bet is to head over to Sault town centre especially when we arrived on the day of the France Music Festival (more on that later). 

Pizza take-out trucks aside, we stumbled upon La Promenade at the edge of the town. Located next to a small local park with a scenic lookout point (and lots of local couples and people playing petanque), the restaurant provides a beautiful view overlooking the wheat and lavender fields around Mont Ventoux. I’m not sure if it was because it was the day of the music festival, there happened to be a live band performing and adding to the festive ambience. There was also a special menu offered on the day and I sceptically picked the paella, wondering how well can a seafood dish turn out in a place surrounded by mountain range. I was pleasantly proven wrong by the paella – it was delicious and fresh! It was so good I contemplated ordering a 2^nd dish for dessert, and wanted more the next day!

Nice view and good food

Yummy paella

Sunset view over dinner

On the second day, we wandered around town looking for a place for dinner and inevitably returned to Le Provencal. Nowhere else came across more appealing than it. It was however back to the usual menu that comprises of decent French home-style cuisine (oh my paella how I missed you), which was no less well executed.

If you are in Sault, I would highly recommend dining here!

Comforting lasagne with a carafe of house wine on 2nd night :)

Where to stay:
Sault is not a typical tourist destination and hence there are very limited guesthouses. Actually our first choice was Mon Ventoux B&B in Saint Jean, but they were unfortunately fully booked when I enquired 3 months in advance! Must book early! In the end, we stay at a B&B named Bleu Or at Verdolier, which is a short 5min drive away from Sault village centre. There are numerous tiny "villages" around Sault and all within few minutes drive from each other.

 
Chambre d’Hotes Bleu Or is a house owned by host Lydie and her husband and you basically rent a room from the couple and have to share bathroom with them. There is also a “blue carriage” you can rent for a longer period (there were a Belgium couple with their 2 dogs staying there for 5 weeks when we were there). An interesting fact is that their neighbour further down the road across is a horse-boarding place. Therefore we often  see people leaving their horses there to gallop and graze around. Which also mean there is some horsy smell every time you enter or leave the B&B. 

the iconic blue carriage is for rental

 

the main house that we stayed with Lydie's family

pool is free for use

our neighbours

EXTRA: France music festival

Every year on 21^st June is France nation-wide music festival that celebrates World Music day.

Lydie told us for the Vaucluse towns, the main celebration event is hosted at the village of Saint Jean and we should not miss it. There was a stage and carnival set up with performances by local musicians. As a tradition, the villagers will gather around a bonfire and join in a mass dance around it.

I can imagine if you are in a larger city especially Paris the music festival will be a grand affair with free concerts and all. Nonetheless it was still interesting to participate and witness such an event.

Drive map of the day: