The Color Lavender

Southern France = summer, heat, vacation, friends, BBQ's, croissants, lavender and Provence!?!  

Yes, Provence is the region of southern France we are calling "home" for the next few days.  (See last post for pictures of "home.")  We spent the day driving around what seemed like every curve the mountains could produce.  What was around the next bend?  

S & J took us to Buis les Baronnies, a town that hosts a large weekly outdoor market in a tree lined parking lot and through the streets.  Clothes, shoes, jewelry, scarves, cheese, fruit, spices, rotisserie chicken, olives, whatever you can think of was most likely available.  Many people, including countless tourists were 

walking through the market with us.  Vendors were friendly and ready to share a sample and take your euros.  We purchased a few food items for lunch and a couple small treasures.  

herbs and spices

rotisserie chicken 

... and when you leave, your car still is parked in the middle of the parking lot where you left it,
while the rest of the cars are in rows along the sides...  

The lavender, oh the lavender!  The fields are in bloom wherever you drive.  The valleys look like huge quilts of various shades of greens and lavenders sewn together.  Their beauty is breath taking, and as you take time to stop and get close enough to touch the plants, your senses are filled to overflowing.  To one who loves the scent of lavender, I cannot tell you how amazing this is to see, smell, touch and even the taste.  (We did purchase a simple cookie that had lavender baked in.  You could not smell it in the baked cookie, but the taste was absolutely wonderful!)  We stopped by a lady's home in the country that had a little sign out by the road, selling lavender oils and lavender honey.  Is a liter of oil enough???

Get up close, come on, closer to your computer.  Can you smell it?

(Obviously not lavender, but the same gorgeous purple)

"He has made everything beautiful in its time."
Ecclesiastes 3.11

Farther up the road, we rounded a curve and this meadow and tree greeted us and S immediately quoted
Psalm 1.3.  The church was the perfect backdrop.

"He is like a tree planted by streams of water..."

Blessings!