Travelling Provence France

Lavender Fields Around Provence

Lavender: high on the sun-drenched plateaus and hills, around Provence in southeastern France, you will find a beautiful plant growing. From early July to September the air becomes enchanted with its perfume; and the fields are blanketed with a rich, majestic purple-blue that covers the land from the Rhone River to the west, almost to the Italian border to the east

The LAVENDER PLANT (Lavandula angustifolia) grows from two to three feet tall and produces small purple-blue flowers that appear on the stalks in attractive slender spikes. While fine lavender is native to the western Mediterranean region. lavandin, a hybrid lavender plant, is now widely cultivated elsewhere in Europe, the United States, and Australia. It successfully grows in well-drained soils enriched with plenty of sunshine. Lavender is a very popular addition to herb gardens because of its delightful aromatic flagrance and subtle blue-violet flowers. Hardier hybrid varieties also make attractive hedges.

The hybrid lavandin produces a greater quantity of oil, making it cheaper to process than the oil found in fine lavender. However, the oil from lavandin is inferior in quality because of its higher camphor camphor /cam·phor/ (kam´fer) a ketone derived from the Asian tree Cinnamomum camphora or produced synthetically; used topically as an antipruritic and antiinfective and inhaled as a nasal decongestant; also used in folk medicine and in Indian medicine. content. While the perfume industry often uses the hybrid lavender in soaps and sachets, it is not recommended for medicinal use.

Royal History

The word “lavender” is believed to be derived from the Latin word “lavare,” meaning “to wash or to cleanse.” In ancient Greek and Roman times lavender was commonly added as a scent to bathwater. It’s still used today for that purpose, especially by those suffering from nervous tension and insomnia. In ancient times it also found service as an antiseptic and was put to use disinfecting hospitals. Read more