On the Hunt for Purple Lavender

My husband and I decided that for this year’s summer vacation, we were not getting on a long-haul flight to visit a far away country. Instead, we decided to take a road trip. We live in Vienna, Austria, that, due to its central location in Europe is the perfect hub for European travel. Earlier this year, a friend told me how much she enjoyed her trip through the south of France a few years ago, where she was able to see the famous lavender fields. We sat down and stalked her Facebook profile to look for her photo album documenting that trip. Once we found it, the decision was clear: that’s where we want to go!

We started with the planning and decided to never drive more than six hours each day in order to avoid getting tired. The entire trip was going to be two weeks with the first week focusing on hunting the lavender fields and the second week being lazy on the Cote d’Azur. Therefore, we decided to have the following set stopps along the way, where we were going to book a hotel room: Waldkirch (Switzerland) – Lyon (France) – Rochefort en Valdaine (France) – Roussillion (France) – St. Tropez (France) – Sanremo (Italy) – Riva del Garda (Italy). This blog post will cover the first week of our vacation.

NOT our hotel

We left Vienna on Saturday morning and headed towards Switzerland. We stopped twice along the way in Austria: once in Mondsee right on the lake with the same name, which is part of the picturesque lake region Salzkammergut, to have lunch. The second stop was for dinner in Bregenz, famous for hosting open air classical performances with the stage set on Lake Constance, which is one of the most western points in Austria before crossing the border into Switzerland. We arrived at the idyllic-bordering-kitschy alpine village of Waldkirch in the late evening. Our shelter for the night, the Towerhotel, was easy to spot, as it was the only building in town that was, well, a tower and therefore higher and more modern than all other buildings. This hotel offers an interesting concept, which was new to me: guests check themselves in and also pay for the room through an automated machine at the entrance. The machine then issues a code to access the room. There is no staff and no breakfast but the Wi-Fi worked very well. The rooms were unspectacular but provided exactly what we were looking for: a simple and cheap accommodation in Switzerland en route to France. We took a stroll through the village and discovered a tiny Italian restaurant, which was set in what seemed like someone’s backyard. Two dogs were snoozing in one corner of the garden and several couples were gazing into each other’s eyes. It was so romantic and tranquil. We ordered a glass of wine and had some tiramisu.

Early the next morning, we took off towards France. As our hotel in Waldkirch did not have a breakfast option and there were no shops or bakeries open on a Sunday, we decided to stop in Geneva right on Lake Geneva. Once we finished our coffee and avocado toast, we took a walk along the lakeshore where tourists tried to get a selfie with the elegant swans and the fountain shooting out of the lake. We joined them to do the same. We also tried getting closer to the fountain, which was accessible through a concrete pier but once we saw a group of soaking wet British men, we decided to keep a respectable distance from the fountain.

We arrived at our first hotel in France in the late afternoon: the Fourviere Hotel in Lyon. When we made our way there, we couldn’t remember why we booked this particular hotel as it seems quite far away from the city center but then we arrived and we remembered. The hotel is a former convent built in 1854 up on a hill. Each room is dedicated to a famous inhabitant of Lyon. The reception is located in the former chapel of the convent and offers a spectacular welcome. The courtyard is delightful and offers a quiet ambience for enjoying a glass of wine before going to bed. Most guests were couples and retirees seeking tranquility, which they were able to find here. The garden provided ample relaxation space with sun beds and also a small lap pool. At the spa, we found a Jacuzzi and a steam bath. What a kick-off for our French vacation! We decided to go to the city center for dinner. We took the nearby funicular, which was located next to the basilica up on the hill. It dropped us off right in the middle of the buzzing city center where lots of restaurants were lined up. As the restaurants were very busy and we weren’t sure how long it would take us to find one we liked, we decided to get crepes on the go from a stand set up outside one of the restaurants. I chose one with apricot jam and it was the best crepe I had on the entire trip. We strolled around and crossed a bridge to get to the other side of the river, where we eventually found a restaurant for dinner in a less busy part of the city. When we returned to our hotel, we finished the evening with a cheese plate and a nice glass of wine in the romantic courtyard. 

The next morning were ready to see those famous lavender fields! We drove south from Lyon towards the area around Carpentras. The region was mentioned in our travel guide as a place to go for finding lavender. We drove over the top of the hill and could see some light purple in the distance. One field looked particularly big and beautiful and so we parked right next to it. Another couple was already there and we joined them but kept a respectful photo-distance. In between the individual rows of lavender were small pathways, which were perfect for posing for pictures. At first, we weren’t sure if a farmer would chase us with a pitchfork if we were to walk into the field, but since the other couple seemed fairly relaxed, I made my move. As I started to walk between the lush lavender, I noticed two things: 1) it didn’t smell like lavender one bit; and 2) each lavender bush was covered with bees! A friend of mine had mentioned the bees but I didn’t expect to find so many. The entire field was buzzing like electricity wires in the rain. Luckily, bees are not like wasps and leave you alone as long as you don’t bother them. I carefully navigated my way through the field, while trying to follow my husbands instructions from the edge of the field where he was standing with the tripod.

After 30 minutes filled with single and couple photos, we continued on. We stopped in Carpentras for lunch. Carpentas is a small, sleepy village, where we hardly saw any people except for a few tired tourists on their bicycles. There was nothing sightseeing-worthy. We found a restaurant through online recommendations and were pleasantly surprised about how good the food was at La Petite Fontaine. Throughout our trip, we noticed that the smaller and unassuming the village, the better the food! As the staff barely spoke English, I was utterly grateful for the five torturous years of French I had in school and was padding myself on the back for how much I still remembered. However, I had to explain to the waitress that I was allergic to prawns and shrimp and I certainly lacked the vocabulary to do so. Therefore I pointed at the word ‘crevettes’ on the menu, which was written on small handheld chalkboard, grabbed my throat with both hands and made choking sounds. She immediately knew what I meant!

Can you tell I'm excited?

While we were waiting for our food, I naively typed ‘lavender’ into the Google Maps search bar, and low and behold, it showed me a ‘lavender trail’. That’s where we will go! And so we did! The lavender trail turned out to be a 5k route that you could walk or drive. Since it was quite an incline, we decided to drive. We stopped on the highest part of the trail and stood in front of one of those picture perfect lavender fields you seen on postcards. A cute tree on one side and an adorable little house on the other: the perfect backdrop for our next photos. Still no lavender smell but again lots of bees. We ‘shared’ the field with two other cars of tourists; however, the field was so massive that we never crossed paths or lenses. I frolicked up and down the field as much as was possible between the bees! I never wanted to leave this beautiful place. Eventually it started to drizzle and it was time anyway to find our new accommodation. In any case: whatever was to come, we saw lavender and captured it on film.

We slowly drove through the curvy and partly very narrow country roads of the Provence. Occasionally we stopped spontaneously when we saw a cute house or a gorgeous view. We also came across a small countryside supermarket by the side of the road where fruits and vegetables were packed in paper cones. There was also an option to taste some wine – of course. Bam! First box of wine bought and loaded into the car. I also bought some apricots that were luring me in with their juicy looks. I couldn’t wait and took a big bite in the parking lot. It was the best apricot I ever tasted in my life! That fact lowered the pain of the apricot juice dripping onto and discolouring my white summer dress.

Our next stop was at the La Fontaine de Rocoule in Rochefort en Valdaine. We were going to spend the next two nights here. The small guesthouse had less than ten rooms and we received a very warm welcome from the family. The wife spoke English very well and the husband proudly showed us the outdoor and indoor pools as well as the Jacuzzi. I was impressed! From the outside, this place looked very small and vanilla but obviously, there was a lot more to find behind the scenes. The husband informed me that he gave us the only room that had AC and gave me a big smile. I was so grateful, I wanted to hug him! Our room was HUGE! After we unpacked our luggage, we asked where we could find the next restaurant. In six kilometers but it was closed on Mondays. We decided to hire his buddy who was a cab driver to take us to Montelimar, the nearest bigger city, which appeared to be the only way to get some dinner without having to drive ourselves for a change. About 15 minutes later, we were picked up by a Dutch cab driver who had been living in France for over twenty years. He told us a little bit about the area on our drive and dropped us off on a street that was lined with touristy restaurants, which we all vetoed. Mondays in general seemed to be quiet days in this area and Montelimar struck us as probably being fairly sleepy on any day of the week. We found a restaurant online closer to the city center called Maries’ 2 chats (Maries 2 cats).

It was going to be another thirty minutes before it opened, so we decided to explore the city. It seemed as if we were the only people on foot and only occasionally a car passed us. We reached a street with two roundabouts close to each other that featured unusual centerpieces: one had a huge kiwi bird and the other a robot-like statue holding a slab of something. 

-->My husband, who works in IT, started to chuckle: “It’s the Nougat version of Android!” What? Apparently the robot was an android figure and the slab it was holding was a piece of nougat – another local product the region was famous for. Then it was finally time for dinner and we could tell right away, why the restaurant had ‘cats’ in the name. One of those furry friends was roaming the dinning area and was surprisingly skinny for a restaurant cat. Our food was fantastic and once again confirmed our theory about small towns.

On our way back, our Dutch cab driver showed us where we would be able to find nice lavender fields in daylight. And sure enough, the next morning we found one less than a five minute drive from our accommodation.

Once again, I enthusiastically dove into the field without bothering the bees. Call me bee whisperer! Depending on the positioning and intensity of the sun, the fields were sometimes a deep purple and sometimes a light, well, lavender. In either case, they were beautiful. Our mission for the day was to visit the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque – a quaint abbey with a gigantic lavender field. It was on the cover of both of our travel guides we bought for the trip and therefore we felt we couldn’t miss out on it. On our way there we stopped in Avignon, one of the bigger cities in the area, to have lunch. After about twenty minutes on the freeway, my husband suggested to take the next exit and cruise along the country roads to see some nicer scenery. Within five minutes on the country road, we came across a perfume shop that had a hug perfume bottle in the parking lot. We were the only customers and an older gentleman emerged from the back office to greet us. We looked around and saw various tiny, open glass containers that were marked with colors and numbers. I guess I gave him a confused look as he smiled and explained that we get to select a perfume based on our personality. This is how it worked: independently of each other both of us sniffed each numbered bottle and only wrote down the numbers of those we liked the smell of. Afterwards, we narrowed down our selection to one scent by sniffing them with our eyes closed. Once each of us were down to one bottle, the salesman told us with surprising accuracy what he could tell us about our personalities based on the scent we chose. We each purchased a bottle of our eau de personality and left Infine-Parfums Personalité.

The cab driver from the night before was raving about Avignon when we asked him about it and we could tell why as soon as we arrived. We parked by the train station and entered the city through an opening in the ancient city wall. This place exuded history. We immediately came across a gorgeous park with some ruins and colorful flowers. What a place! Then we stopped by what seemed like a fast food lunch place where you can customize your salads and toasts. Fittingly, the place was called Töst and for €15 we bought a toast, a salad, a coke and a bottle of water. The food was fast, delicious and filling. Avignon is especially known for being home to nine popes during the 14^th century, therefore one of the architectural gems of the city is the

Palais des Papes. We didn’t go inside the palace as we are more outdoor-tourists and decided to visit Avignon’s famous bridge with its distinct arches. Only half of the bridge was still standing and therefore ended in the middle of a river. For a few Euros only, you can climb up the stairs to reach the medieval stone bridge. There were a few tourists exploring the bridge but it was by no means crowded. We walked all the way to the end of the bridge out on the river, while humming ‚Sur le pont d’Avignon... da da da’ in my head. I hadn’t thought of that song since I was a child. Of all the cities and villages we had visited so far on this trip, Avignon is the first one I would call a must-see.

Our journey to the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque outside the village of Gordes continued. Gordes was, as were many villages in the area, sitting a top a hill as if Monet had painted it up there. It was absolutely stunning! However, we kept driving and focused on seeing some more lavender. The last kilometer of the street leading to the abbey was lined with cars on both sides and so we took the first available spot. A not very effective single-wire fence surrounded the lavender field in front of the abbey. On the far end, there was a tractor as if to annoy the tourist by spoiling their perfect photograph. Several people ignored the fence by simple lifting it up and going underneath it. We spotted some tourists and also painters on the lavender field. We started to walk towards the abbey, which was still at least 15 minutes away, which feels twice as long in 30C degree heat. Right in front of the abbey was a large parking lot filled with cars and

buses. There was a much smaller and unfortunately dried-up lavender field directly outside the abbey walls, with a ‘real’ fence around it, which explained why nobody took the wire fence seriously. We took an unenthusiastic photo of the abbey among the crowds and left. To us, the abbey was really only impressive from a distance with the lavender field, and unavoidably with the tractor, in front of it. We took a few final photos from that side and escaped into the AC-cooled car. My husband asked me where we should go next. I gave him a timid smile and told him that I would like to go back to the lavender trail. As a (maybe) typical man, he reminded me that we have already been there. As a (maybe) typical woman, I pointed out that today was sunnier and would make for better photos. He sighed, started the car and less than an hour later we were back at the amazing lavender field with the cute tree and the adorable house.

On our drive back to Rochfort en Valdaine we made sure to stop for dinner along the way in order not to have to drive to Montelimar again. We came across yet another tiny town. This time it was Nyons. Once again, the city itself did not have a whole lot to offer in terms of sightseeing or architecture and yet we had difficulty to find a table at a restaurant because of all the tourists. We never really came across any masses of tourists like you do when visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Coliseum in Rome, however, we only noticed that the region was in high demand when looking for food. We eventually did find a table and I once again tried to communicate with the waitress with my limited French, her broken English and the universal language of hands-on-throat to inform her about my allergies. Her stern look on her face reminded me of my French teacher and I wanted to hide under the table. Since it was so hot, I decided to order the tomato gazpacho. When it arrived, there was, what looked like a scoop of vanilla ice cream, sitting in the middle of the cold soup. I don’t like vanilla ice cream at all but I decided to give it a try. To my palate’s pleasant surprise the scoop turned out to be goat cheese ice cream and was a perfect match with the tomato. It was so delicious that I can’t remember what I had for my main course or what the name of the restaurant was.

After dinner, the waitress waived for me to come inside. I had no idea what she wanted and I definitely did not have the vocabulary to ask her. I didn’t want to be rude and went inside. There she pointed at world map on the wall that was covered with pins: “You put pin.” I realized she wanted me to put a pin in my home country on the map and so I climbed up onto a chair and did just that. She thanked me with a smile.

The next morning we had one final breakfast at the La Fontaine de Rocoule before continuing our trip. At about 9 AM, we stepped into the breakfast room, which also seemed to serve as the family’s living room and general common area for guests, where we found about ten people sitting around the huge dining table with their laptops. A presentation about ‘The Manager of Tomorrow’ was projected onto the all. Apparently we had just crashed a company team building. We quietly grabbed a few croissants and marmalade as well as some coffee and went to the courtyard to eat and marvel about the fantastic idea of having a team building in these surroundings. Our next stopped was Roussillon. Roussillon was among other things famous for its large red and yellow ochre rocks. Our accommodation was more difficult to find this time and was not in Roussillon but on its outskirts. We winded our way through the extremely narrow streets with our wine and olive oil filled car. Eventually we found Le Chant du Coeur.

The small and lovely hotel was one of the most idyllic places I had ever stayed at. This adults-only hotel offers only about ten rooms and an amazing view of the hills around it from the terrace. I highly recommend this place for honeymooners who enjoy sipping a glass of wine in a Jacuzzi under a tree, while listening to the birds sing. There was also a nice-sized pool for the hotter days. This was definitely our most favorite and the quietest place we stayed at. There is another added bonus (in my opinion): the hotel’s owner has a very friendly dog and cat. Our rooms smelled of lavender and we were welcomed with a glass of rose. We visited the town for lunch and sat on a lovely terrace at the Cafe des Coloeurs. This town was all about magnificent views. Afterwards, we went to the tourist office and asked for some information about what to see and do in the area and where we could do a wine tasting. After about 15 minutes on foot in some drizzle rain, we arrived at a gorgeous winery. They clearly didn’t expect visitors in this weather and a lady came running to the tasting room, where we were already having a look around. In record speed, we tasted our way through some roses and reds, as we had the impression that she was a bit stressed out. We bought a few bottles yet again and also some jars of marmalade. We asked her to call us a cab to take us back to our hotel. When we got there, the sun was out again and we decided to give the Jacuzzi a test-soak. For dinner, we went back to Roussillon and had a lovely meal at the Comptoir des Arts while a thunderstorm was raging outside.

The next morning, we were served breakfast at the time we requested the evening before. We asked the owner of the hotel for recommendations in the area and consulted a roadmap of the region. We mentioned to her that we were thinking of going to Marseille. She responded with “Why would you go to hell, if you can go to heaven” while pointing at a the coastal city of Cassis. We took her advice and made our way to ‘heaven’. Cassis is an adorable, small harbor-city with a few beaches and beautiful cliffs. By noon, the area around the parked yachts was invaded by day-tourists like us. The lady from the hotel recommended that we book a boat tour to see the famous cliffs and coves along the coast, called Calanque. We decided on the 90 minute boat tour.

It was a very windy day and the boat ride was rather bumpy. A child on board was crying throughout the entire trip because the waves were so intense and the boat was open on either side. The captain tried to calm her down with some candy and his pet – a domesticated cricket, which sat on his should for the entire 90 minutes. The candy worked, the cricket not so much. A very brave lady, who must have been in her seventies, stood in the very front of the boat where she was showered by Cote d’Azur water multiple times. She seemed to enjoy it! The more soaked she got, the bigger she smiled. The cliffs along the coast were incredible! With some of the hidden coves, we weren’t sure how the sunbathers even were able to get there. Cliff jumpers offered an impressive spectacle and the azure-blue water was magical. Upon return to the harbor, we ate some crepes and bought some cheese, grapes, tomatoes and a baguette as well as some wine before heading back to the hotel. Interestingly, half-bottles of wine are widely available in the Provence and perfect for sharing between two. And so we finished our day with a little picnic on the hotel terrace with some local wine and cheese and the stunning view of the lush green hills around us.

Our week in the Provence was coming to a close. Our next stop was going to be St. Tropez on the Cotes d’Azure, which was the kick-off for our second – lazy – week of our vacation. Before departing Roussillon, we visited the ochre rocks. The entrance to the park was only €2 and we could choose between the large and small track. We chose the small track, which was estimated as taking about 45 minutes. Although to this day I am still not sure what ochre is used for besides making artist’ paint, I found the red and yellow rocks impressive. The rocks looked like oversized sand castles. On our way to St. Tropez, we were planning on taking a detour to check out the Gordes du Verdon, a narrow canyon that can be entered by kayak. I say this canyon on my friend’s photos and she even sent me the name of it but somehow I confused the Gordes du Verdon with the Pont du Gard. Looking back, it would have been easier to go to the Pont du Gard as it was much closer to the lavender region. I still don’t know how that happened, HOWEVER my mix-up led to an unexpected, wonderful ending of our tour through the provence. Wie drove through the area of Valensole on our way to the Gordes du Verdon. This is where we came upon the mother of all lavender fields – or even mothers. One massive, purple lavender field after the other lined the country road along with the occasional but just as massive and beautiful sunflower fields. I could barely contain my excitement and my nose was glued to the car window. I didn’t even have to say anything and my husband pulled into the next parking lot. This is where we also found all the other tourists that we had only seen at the restaurants so far. Before I stormed towards the lavender and sunflower fields, I grabbed a pretty summer dress out of my suitcase and changed out of my boring I-will-be-in-a-car-for-the-next-six-hours-outfit. Then I made my way towards the far end of one of the fields, passed the tourists, and the photos we took show how truly happy I was to be there.