In Provence, despite recurring droughts, lavender fields still attract crowds

The immaculate white of the wedding dress contrasts with the mauve expanses as far as the eye can see: in the lavender fields of the plateau of Valensole, in Provence, tourists flock to photograph themselves in the middle of a culture which suffers from global warming.

“It’s a very beautiful place, perfect for our wedding photos that we couldn’t take because it was during the Covid”, explains Wen Chang, 33-year-old Taiwanese.

The young woman and her Belgian companion wanted to immortalize their past union with a few shots in a Provençal setting, after having discovered in a travel guide this place nestled in the south of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, wedged between the natural parks of Luberon and Verdon.

After a few minutes, however, and while the temperatures at the end of July exceed 30 degrees daily, the couple returns to their car, air-conditioned, parked along the road.

This ballet of cars or buses repeats itself several hundred times a day in this rural corner, which is difficult to access and generally peaceful… outside the flowering period of the “Lavandula”, from the end of June to the end of July.

To visit the places, many tourists are inspired by Instagram where the hashtags “lavender”, “Valensole plateau” or “Provence” flourish and count tens of thousands of occurrences boasting of an idyllic destination.

“Lavender fields are so Instagrammable that we take advantage of them”, exclaims Jean Frédéric Gonthier, director of the Tourist Office of the Durance-Luberon-Verdon agglomeration.

– Lack of rain –

With 26,000 visitors at the Lavender Festival organized in Valensole on July 17, a record, he welcomes “the return of a foreign clientele”, in particular Americans and Asians “and an attendance that is growing every year”.

“We are not against tourists, it only lasts three weeks. If it was the whole year, we would have to take measures”, agrees Jean-Pierre Jaubert, 67, a lavender producer and proud to belong to a family of farmers “for 300 years”.

More than the overcrowding of the site, he is worried that this postcard setting will be upset due to climate change and the now recurrent episodes of drought.

“Years ago, the plateau was blue and now much less. As much heat, we are used to it but what we notice is the lack of rain. Before, it was once a month, now sometimes it does not rain for three months!”, He is alarmed.

More than on production, which remains stable, it is felt on “the yield of lavender: now we tear off the feet after eight or nine years, before it was sometimes 20 years”.

Since 2020, he has practically only used organic fertilizers and claims to see an improvement in his yield.

“It costs more and takes longer, but when it’s dry, the plant tolerates better with manure or the remains of corks. Microbial life also reappears. In the long term, it’s more beneficial”, explains the farmer who no longer uses glyphosate, a controversial herbicide and classified as a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The 2023 season promises to be better for lavender growers, however, helped by a relatively rainy spring.

With an area of ​​13,101 hectares of lavender and lavandin (a natural hybrid resulting from a cross between two wild species of lavender) planted, the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence are ahead of Drôme and Vaucluse in the cultivation of this flower, according to the Interprofessional Committee for French Essential Oils (CIHEF).

In 2022, France was the world leader in the production of lavender essential oil (1,700 tonnes) and second, behind Bulgaria, for lavender essential oil (120 tonnes).