Lavandula
Plateau de Valensole is known for its wide lavender fields that, in summer, create one of the most characteristic landscapes of Provence. Associated with scent, bees, and traditional farming, it remains one of the region’s most recognizable views.
What the sources say
Lavandula (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean, with an affinity for maritime breezes.
Lavender is found on the Iberian Peninsula and around the entirety of the Mediterranean coastline (including the Adriatic coast, the Balkans, the Levant, and coastal North Africa), in parts of Eastern and Southern Africa and the Middle East, as well as in South Asia and on the Indian subcontinent.
Many members of the genus are cultivated extensively in temperate climates as ornamental plants for garden and landscape use, for use as culinary herbs, and also commercially for the extraction of essential oils. Lavender is used in traditional medicine and as an ingredient in cosmetics.
The genus includes annual or short-lived herbaceous perennial plants and shrub-like perennials, subshrubs or small shrubs.
Leaf shape is diverse across the genus. They are simple in some commonly cultivated species; in other species, they are pinnately toothed, or pinnate, sometimes multiple pinnate and dissected. In most species, the leaves are covered in fine hairs or indumentum, which normally contain essential oils.
Flowers are contained in whorls, held on spikes rising above the foliage, with the spikes being branched in some species. Some species produce colored bracts at the tips of the inflorescences. The flowers may be blue, violet, or lilac in the wild species, occasionally blackish purple or yellowish. The sepal calyx is tubular. The corolla is also tubular, usually with five lobes (the upper lip often cleft, and the lower lip has two clefts).
Around 93 individual phytochemicals have been identified in lavender oil, including major contents of linalyl acetate (30–55%), linalool (20–35%), tannins (5–10%), and caryophyllene (8%), with lesser amounts of sesquiterpenoids, perillyl alcohols, esters, oxides, ketones, cineole, camphor, beta-ocimene, limonene, caproic acid, and caryophyllene oxide. The relative amounts of these compounds vary considerably among lavender species.
Wikipedia, „Lavandula” (CC BY-SA 4.0), wikipedia.org, 2026/01/09.
My view
Plateau de Valensole is one of those places that makes an impression even before you stop. Already several minutes before arrival, you can smell the lavender, and then the space opens up—vast, rolling fields and a colour that cannot be mistaken for anything else.
This is not an attraction “on its own.” It works best as an extension of a trip to the Verdon Gorge and Lake Sainte-Croix. When we are already heading in that direction, we usually add about 30 minutes of driving beyond the canyon to briefly experience a completely different Provençal landscape.
When it makes sense
This place has a very specific season. Lavender usually starts blooming in mid-June, and the fields are most often harvested from the second half of July.
The best moment is typically between late June and mid-July—this is when the colour is strongest and the scent most intense. After that, the landscape changes quickly and loses its main visual impact.
That is why, when planning a route, I always check whether there is still “something to see.” If yes, it is worth going. If not, the Verdon Gorge and Lake Sainte-Croix are strong enough destinations on their own.
How it works in practice
This is not a place for long walks or hours of staying. Fifteen minutes is enough—a short stop, a few photos, and a moment simply to stand among the fields and feel the scent of lavender in the air.
Plateau de Valensole is best treated as an additional fragment of the route during a trip towards Gorges du Verdon and Lac de Sainte-Croix. It does not require changing the plan of the day, only a conscious extension of the drive—when the season truly allows it.
Plateau de Valensole gallery
Plateau de Valensole on map
How this place fits into my tours
This place appears in my routes when it naturally fits the day, the direction of travel, and the season. Sometimes it is one of the main points of the tour; other times it is a quiet stage along the way. It all depends on how the day is planned.
I treat ready-made tours as a starting point, not a closed script. If something needs to be shortened, extended, reordered, or combined with another place, we adjust as we go. We don’t move “from point to point”—we build a day that makes sense and feels comfortable.
You can see this place in tours such as:
If none of the ready-made routes fits perfectly, a tailor-made tour offers full flexibility. We can focus on one place, combine several stops, or build the day entirely from scratch. I take care of the route and logistics, and the plan is adjusted to you—not the other way around.
Tour: Verdon Gorge
We travel to Verdon Gorge and Lake Sainte-Croix, where the water shifts from turquoise to deep green and the canyon walls reveal a scale photos cannot capture. Along the way there are viewpoints, small towns and places where you naturally want to stop and take it all in.
Tour: A Day Exclusively for You
This is a day without a preset plan. We can focus on one place, combine several towns or follow a specific theme. The route is shaped entirely around what you want to see – Nice, the coast, the hills or less obvious locations away from the main routes.
