As I just said, the right word to describe the emotions that you feel when you travel in Provence especially for the first time still needs to be invented. Originally, the lavender plant was imported to France by the Greeks around the sixth century BC. Though they imported it, the Romans were the ones who started to extract the essential oil from the plant and use it to bathe. The lavender fields are a complete sensory experience. As centuries passed by, the use of lavender as a medicinal herb grew exponentially; by the 14th century, the plant had a vast series of uses, from healing simple headaches to treating much more serious health problems.
Soon, the word about its miraculous effects against diseases had spread and some merchants even swore that lavender warded off viruses like cholera and plague. Lavender used to be cut in the wild, though these days it is cultivated in France. With a steadily growing demand for lavender, many families started to earn their entire income from the harvest of this plant. From around the first decades of the 20th century throughout, many lavender cultivations started to appear in the south of France, all around the region of Provence.
The lavender plants in France bloom every year from June to August, depending on the area: the flowering will start in June in the lower and warmer regions and then later in July and August in the mountainous regions. In Provence, specifically in the most famous zone to which everybody travels, the blooming happens between the last two weeks of June and the first ten days of July, depending on the temperatures of the current year.
The last days of June are the best time to travel to France to photograph lavender fields. In fact, most of the days will be warm and sunny. This means that you won't need a weather-sealed camera, lenses or tripod; you can take your trustworthy equipment and hit the road!
A full-frame camera is required for lavender photography. If you want to rest assured, then take along at least a mm lens. If you want to shoot in low light conditions, a decent and sturdy tripod is necessary. Filters can be useful too but for a trip to Provence, they aren't usually the first thing that I put in my bag honestly.
