For those of you who’d like a bit of background on the subject, you could take a trip to the Le Musée de la Lavande: The Museum of Lavender, in the quietly charming dry stone village of Cabrieres d’Avignon. You’ll find much information about the industry, both past and present here, about the planting, harvesting and distillation of lavender and from the start of July to mid August. They showpiece Provence lavender distillation techniques from the early 1900’s using a traditional open flame still. And they sell many lavender products too, having a range of their own natural cosmetics and essential oils.

The other famous location is Notre-Dame de Senanque, a must see in Provence during lavender season. It is a Cistercian abbey near the spectacular hilltop village of Gordes in Vaucluse-en-Provence. The Abbey was founded in 1148 by Cistercian monks and is an interesting and rewarding visit all by itself, made all the more rewarding by its position in a lovely valley and by the acres of gorgeous lavender that surround it.

There are quite a few lavender festivals in Provence worth looking out for if you’re in the area at the time, most of them are one day events and can make for an entertaining day out. The theme is lavender of course, so there’ll be a huge amount of locally produced lavender products to sample and to buy, but they also extend to an energetic celebration of more general local traditions; food, folk music, arts & crafts etc. The first of the year in the town of Ferrassières, on the Plateau D’Albion, which is on the first Sunday of July (July 7th in 2019) and is a quite relaxed low key affair. The town of Valesole hosts possibly the most famous Lavender festival in Provence on the third Sunday of July every year (21st July in 2019), while Sault celebrates on August 15th each year.

This year, Jacquemus the French Designer picked Valensole’s lavender fields as the backdrop to his spring/summer 2020 show, and it’s here – amid the blooms – that he tells Vogue about the power of pop, championing creativity outside of Paris, and ultimately finding happiness. First, however, there is the issue of navigating Valensole’s visiting influencer population. The opportunity to get a ‘gram amid the lavender extravaganza at any cost proves so irresistible that large road signs featuring posed stick figures have been erected to warn drivers of the incumbent Insta-hazards during June. That’s one serious business!