LAVENDER

Lavender and Lavandin

The Apt plain is covered with carpets of "real" lavender and lavandin, or hybrid lavender. The village of Lagarde d’Apt alone accounts for 20% of France's lavender production.

Once the lavender is cut (initially with a scythe, now with a combine harvester), it is dried and then distilled to produce essential oil. Around 100 kg of dried lavender is needed to make 1kg of oil.

Lavender oil has been used since Antiquity, but it wasn't until the Renaissance that trade developed, thanks largely to the Medicis. Since then, the flower that has become synonymous with Provence has been used in a wide range of products including herbal tea, spiced bread, sorbet, lemonade, soap, and perfume.

How to tell one type of lavender from another :
• Common lavender : small clumps and a single spike.
• Spike lavender : large-leafed, with lots of small spikes.
• Hybrid lavender : large round clumps.

Don't forget: Lavender blossoms from June to late July and is harvested and distilled from mid-July to late August.

Itinerary

Leave Apt towards Les Agnels, where there is an internationally-known distillery which supplies perfumers and detergent manufacturers.

Then head towards Saignon via the Claparèdes plateau, with its tints and fragrances of lavender. While on this road you will notice a number of splendid isolated stone huts.

Continuing towards Auribeau and Castellet, you climb up Grand Luberon. The beautiful views over the lavender fields and the valley are a photographer’s delight. When approaching the villages at certain times of the year, the air is heady with the perfume of traditional lavender distilleries.
Continue towards Viens, Lagarde d’Apt and the Albion Plateau, with its striped fields of fine lavender...

Go back towards Apt to visit a traditional distillery at the gates of the town. Here you can meet the lavender growers, the Borde family, who have passed the distillery from father to son and will welcome you with a guided visit.