Sault, Southern France

The fragrant Lavender Fields of the Provence

The beautiful vibrant fields of purple together with the aromatic but calming scent of lavender have captivated people for a long time.  Visiting the Provence in France and standing in the middle of a lavender field was on my bucket list for a long time. We had the opportunity to drive through France in the beginning of August in 2019 and I promised myself to make this dream come true.

I didn’t know at the time that August was already very (too) late to see the beautiful Lavender fields . The best time to visit is between mid June to mid July. Most fields have been harvested by the end of July. I still wanted to try to find a blooming lavender field and did not get discouraged.

I had researched before online and found several areas that sounded promising. Once we were in the Provence, we found out that most of the fields were already harvested. We drove to many sites that I had found and there were no more blooming Lavender fields.

We were ready for a break and for something to eat and stopped spontaneously in Sault. I am so happy we found this small charming village. It lays up on a hill at an altitude of 750 meters with gorgeous views of Val de Sault (which in June and July must have been painted in purple with all the blooming fields).

We parked the car and wandered around streets, old stone houses and village squares. It was such a quaint little village with lots of purple accents. We visited several shops and tasted the different nougats, macaroons and delicious lavender honey. We ate lunch and bought some nougat and lavender to take with us. There was a really nice girl in one of the shops that explained to us the difference between Lavandula and Lavandin. She told us that the higher the altitude of the field, the later the flowers will bloom and gave me direction to several possible late blooming fields.

I was so delighted to finally see purple spots of lavender fields in the distance. I am still happy today, that even though the chances were slim, we actually found Lavender fields. There was somebody working on a field harvesting lavender. We got a “hands on” lavender lesson on how it is harvested and dried in the sun. Such a cool learning opportunity and adventure I will never forget.