{"id":590,"date":"2019-09-03T21:21:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T19:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/?p=590"},"modified":"2025-08-14T19:34:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T17:34:04","slug":"lanurile-de-lavanda-sau-naftalina-in-forma-ei-frumoasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/en\/2019\/09\/lanurile-de-lavanda-sau-naftalina-in-forma-ei-frumoasa\/","title":{"rendered":"The lavender fields – “naphthalene” in its beautiful form…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To me, the small pouches\nwith a smelling powder from the wardrobes of my childhood or the modern liquid\nversion of the lavender solution are simple naphthalene. Bleah! Yeah, I know\nthere is no connection, but the both end up on the shelves. So, with an\nunpleasant smell in my nose, I leave for a trip to Provence<\/strong>, to see the famous lavender\nfields<\/strong>. I am curious to see if I really am like a moth which flies away as\nfar as possible or rather like a bee who would have its siesta on a flower…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VALENSOLE PROVENCE<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The lavender fields\nappear very suddenly. Vast, spectacular and very purple. We all take out the\nphones, the cameras, as if that were the only image we are going to see…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let’s get serious.\nWe are on a paid trip, so I think that for the sum we paid, they would at least\nlet us take a selfie. J<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We stop close to a farm\nand we are let free to wander around in the lavender field. Unbelievable, the\nsmell is not as strong as I imagined. It is quite pleasant. And I find the only\nsunflower in the entire lavender field in Valensole. I wonder what this thing\nis doing here… I think she is a runaway from her sisters, because she felt\nthe need to be unique…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we, the tourists who\nhave landed in the field, want to feel that we are the only ones on the planet\nwho got to such a place, so we take selfies to be enough for all the relatives,\nthe friends and the enemies. J<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After some 50 selfies in which I was crooked and with my eyes closed, I take a last one and that is it! The light is very strong.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Agriculture is the most\nimportant in this area. The soil is very dry, but people are very proud of the\naqueducts built by the romans, with all the channels and the irrigation\nsystems, that proved to be very useful over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all walk on some\naisle or another and then, I have no idea why, as lavender is the same\neverywhere, we try to jump like goats form one aisle to another, to change the\naisle… It is not at all easy. You have to take care not to destroy anything,\nfirst of all (not tell you that you are not allowed to pick not even one stem\nof lavender) and they not to be strung by bees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MISTRAL WIND<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Is it raining? No, it is\nonly in my mind, as I dream to have some water over my head, to cool down. J Although it is June, it’s so hot here.\nAnd the wind doesn’t blow at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking about the wind,\nI found out that the famous wind Mistral<\/strong>,\nthat is so important for the Provence climate, takes its name from an Avignon\npoet, Frederic Mistral. He is a very important person to them, as he fought to\nsave the Provencal language and even made a Provencal-French dictionary. In\n1904, the man receives the Nobel Prize for literature. (No, not for the\ndictionary…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Give me a sledge and step aside, because I want to go down the hill on my belly. (What would you expect? Plenty of sun, lots of imagination hihi).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHEN LAVENDER BLOOMS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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From this angle (after\nfooling the sun) you can see that the lavender has fresh flowers. It is the end\nof June. The organized trips start here around the 10th<\/sup> of June,\nhowever everybody says that the best month to see the lavender in full bloom is\nJuly. With all the heat that may hit you…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Between two lavender fields that we have on our list, we make a short stop for shopping. It is as if someone has blown a purple dust all over the place! Everything you can see around is purple…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bought some Teddy bears, other people went for soaps or bath salt and many others chose the lavender oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n