The Ultimate Provence Lavender Field Guide | France

When Ashley and I purchased our tickets to France we knew right away what our main goal was, to see lavender fields. This was the catalyst that got us to buy those pricey tickets on a whim. It was agreed upon that we couldn’t wait any longer to see them and we HAD to go this summer. We mapped out our drive and figured out the logistics of hotels and rental car.

The only thing left was to figure out where to see lavender fields.

So began my plunge into all things lavender related. I scoured the internet searching for addresses or maps really anything that would tell me where to see lavender fields.  All this searching and I kept coming up empty handed. I can’t tell you how many blog post or website said, “driving through Provence you’ll come across so many fields.” My first thought was wow that is a vague and generalized statement Provence is large.  My second thought was no seriously why can’t ANYONE actually tell me where the fields are.

It seemed that no one could offer up clear directions to where you could find the fields.

I know as travelers we are supposed to be “all about the journey” and not the destination but, no.  If I was spending my whole paycheck to go to France to see lavender fields, I needed to know I would see some goddamn lavender fields. After weeks of searching, I came across a very obscure blog that had some sort of google map with places to see lavender fields. So this was our working guide. The only problem was once we touched down in France the website seemed to have gone missing and all we had to go off of was the google map I had printed out.

So with all that planning Ashley and I were flying blind.

But something amazing happened we took our map, made some detours and found the holy grail. And I can now say it was worth it. The idea of visiting a lavender field has been a childhood dream of mine for as long as I can remember. I am not sure why or how it got there but I just knew that I had to see one. I never in a million years would have thought that I would to see them in France and with my best friend. It was perfect and words simply cannot describe the flurry of excitement I had to be there, so I won’t even try. I will however, tell you WHERE, WHEN and HOW we got to a few different fields. Some things are worth the trouble and this is one of them.

Below you will find the 2017 Ultimate Provence Lavender Field Guide.

For the purpose of making things easy, there are two types of places to see lavender fields; public fields and privately owned fields. Which ever type of field you choose unless stated otherwise do not pick, destroy or step on the lavender. This is the farmer’s lively hood so it is not cool to mess it up. True travelers aim to leave a place the same or better than how they found it, please be respectful!

 

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WHERE

Public Locations – will have more tourist but you are welcomed into the fields.

–Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque. This monastery has been in use since 1148. The lavender fields are plentiful but aim to get here either early or late in the day because it does get very crowded. 7.50 €

–Lavandes Angelvin. This lavender farm has a ton of lavender rows for viewing. This does fill up with tourist so again early or late is key.

Private Locations- will have less tourist but you are trespassing and may have to ask permission.

-From Moustiers-Sainte-Marie to Lavandes Angelvin is where we saw most of the lavender fields. Driving down highway D6 you won’t see them until you see the first one and it’s one after another. On our map below we pinned roughly around where we started to see them pop up.

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WHEN

The blooms vary but roughly you want to aim to get there mid-July. This ensures that you will see fuller blooms. If you go to early the fields aren’t as filled with lavender. Roughly it blooms between last week of June to the beginning of August when it is harvested.

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HOW

You really only have two options to see them either with a tour group or on your own. A tour group will be more expensive and you will be stuck with a lot of people which is not idle for photos and to enjoy the fields. Alternatively, you could do what we did and rent a car. Keep in mind there will be tolls and we recommend bring lots of coins in case your card doesn’t work this is the best way to see Provence in general. You are able to stop in cute towns and just pull over when you start to see the lavender fields.

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Below is our Google Map

 

 

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Written By:

Hi, I’m Jay. A twenty-something-year-old living in New York. There’s not all that much to say about me other than; I love to eat, drink and travel. I’ve lived in some incredible cities from Paris to New York to Florence, and along the way, I’ve crossed off a ton on my bucket list. I hope we inspire you to go out there and see for yourself, just how beautiful life can be.