Lavender Anyone?

August 2024 by Catherine Frodsham

(I have several posts from our mission experience in Lyon, France. I will post these over time as we continue our experience in Greece.) I LOVE LAVENDER! In Southern France they grow Lavender, and it only can be enjoyed 1 month out of every year. It is usually the end of June through July or sometimes July through the beginning of Aug. Well, we kind of missed it but still saw some beautiful fields. They just weren’t as colorful as they can be. We drove down for a couple of days for our P-Days – missionary preparation days. We drove to a small little town near Toulon on the Mediterranean. It had a beautiful beach that we walked on but we didn’t bring swimsuits on our mission. Although we can swim, we just didn’t think about it. We had a beautiful hotel and a wonderful restaurant right on the beach. Here are pictures of the hotel and beach.

The next morning, we drove to Gordes, France which has the Abbaye of Senque where monks live and sell Lavender products, etc. That was beautiful. Here are pictures of the Abbaye and Gordes.

Next, we heard that the little town of Sault has the best Lavender fields, but it takes a bit to drive there on two lane roads. It was so beautiful. We found a field of Sun Flowers which I love as well and produce stands. The lady at the produce stand gave me a bouquet of Lavender and she said it is dry and not pretty. I loved it. As we got closer to Sault, we saw many Lavender fields and it was beautiful. I wish we came a week or two earlier the color would have been so brilliant!! But it was worth it because we won’t be in France the next time it is in bloom. (How little did we know how true that would be.)

Here is a picture of the town of Sault. So, French and cozy. We loved it. I found a few Santons as well. The one thing I want to get in France to take home is a Nativity made from Santons. They are a French ceramic figurines. Some are small and some are large.

I bought 3 when I was in France as a teenager and my kids have looked at those for all these years. haha! It was an art started back in the 1700’s where the Santonairs would make clay people doing French things. Like a baker, farmer, store owner preacher or butcher etc. They are all from their daily lives and beautifully made. I hope before we leave, I can find some that I can bring home.

We did make a quick trip to Marseilles when we got the call that we would be moving to Greece just before we left France and I was able to purchase a nativity set. Above is the Santon Store in Marseille.

We love France. We love the people, the members of the church who are so stalwart. We will miss them. We love the countryside, the beauty of France. We are lucky we got to see so much, but there is so much more we wanted to see.