Paysage de champs colorés près de Sarraud, Vaucluse, France (44°01’ N – 5°24’ E)
Mr. Cassan and his family cultivate more than 600 acres of both traditional or ‘true’ lavender and lavendin, a sterile, hardier and much more prolific hybrid with a cruder, industrial, camphor scent. His great-grandfather was among the first lavender middlemen in France, roaming the back roads on horseback and paying farmers for the lavender that grew wild in their dry, chalky fields; his grandfather was among the first generation in France to cultivate the plants as a commercial cash crop. Until 3 most mornings these days, Mr. Cassan’s son Benoît runs two huge stills that transform the cut plants from their own and neighboring farms into essences that will infuse products as varied as body moisturizer and window spray. The elder Mr. Cassan also has begun to promote lavender aromatherapy to help the town’s economy. ‘My goal is to build our economy around lavender’s essential oils,’ Mr. Cassan said, ‘to give conferences and seminars, to hand out prizes. This is how we are forging our way into the future’.”
NY Times: In Provence, Commerce’s Scent Is Tinged With Lavender
See also: Les Routes de la Lavande
- Anne