On our way to Sault from Montbrun-les-Bains, we drove a small section of the Route de la Lavande past Ferassières. I really wanted to see old bories surrounded by lavender and I was in luck. We saw some lovely fields of blooming lavender and quite a few bories amongst them. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time taking photos. There were hardly any other tourists compared to the Valensole plateau which also made it more enjoyable. When I did venture into a field, I put on my full pants and shoes as I didn't want to repeat my mistake from a few days ago. At one pullout, we saw a lady returning to her car with a basketful of lavender and her scythe resting on top. We had just missed her harvesting by a few minutes! By the time we pulled into our campsite in Sault (the same one we had stayed in a couple of weeks ago with Sheahan), it was nearing lunchtime. We setup camp and enjoyed a leisurely lunch as we caught up on blogs.

In the late afternoon, we headed into Sault and we happened to be there on the last day of a wildlife photo exhibition that featured scenes from in and around the Mt Ventoux area. For a nominal entrance fee (2 euros), we got to see some amazing photos. They even had a couple of guest photographers from Finland exhibiting photos. Our favourite ones were those of owls, foxes and ermines in snow and of wildlife (deer, hares and big horned sheep) amongst the lavender fields. The photo exhibit was spread across multiple buildings throughout the old town so it was perfect to get to see the town as you went from one exhibit to the other. We got given a map of town with all the exhibits marked and there were "paw prints" painted on the roads to guide you between the various buildings. One of the exhibits was even housed in an old windmill and there were large prints that were displayed in public places throughout the town, pinned to straw bales. It was very well organized and we thought it was a neat idea to have it spread out across town. Since we enjoy photography so much, we spent quite a bit of time admiring all the photos. By the time we left Sault for our scenic drive around the Albion plateau, it was nearing 5:30 pm. It actually worked out well as the evening light was much better for taking photos of the lavender. It was interesting to see that there were quite a few lavender fields on this plateau that still weren’t in bloom because we were a few hundred meters higher than in Valensole. On the way back to Sault, we zipped up to a viewpoint which we had been to with Sheahan a few weeks back. The lavender hadn’t been in bloom then but now the fields in the valley below were in full bloom, with Mt Ventoux in the background. It was quite hazy off in the distance so we decided that if we had time the following morning, we’d stop by again. It was a very pleasant drive around the plateau and by the time we returned to Sault, the thunderclouds had moved in but it hadn’t started to rain quite yet. We rushed back to camp, took our laundry off the line, rolled out our awning and put our table and chairs under. There was an incredibly loud thunder a few minutes later that made both of us duck for cover instinctively. However, it never did rain that evening. There was a large group of Dutch cyclists camped close by but luckily they weren’t singers like the Czech cyclists we had encountered on our last stay here.

The following morning, we got off to a quick start from camp as we wanted to do a walk through the lavender fields before the heat of the day. We’ve been having very hot days and nights in Provence, reaching into the low to mid 30s during the day and only cooling down to 20 degrees at night. We therefore try to do any sightseeing before noon and spend the rest of the afternoon by the pool. Before setting off on our walk, we went up to the viewpoint that we had been to the previous evening. There was no haze this time and we had a clear view of the fields and Mt Ventoux. The “Chemin des Lavandes” started a couple of kms outside of Sault and was a loop through lavender, spelt and straw fields with a couple of info panels pertaining to the lavender life-cycle (from planting to harvesting and distillation) along the way. It was a beautiful walk and although we could have driven or ridden it on our cycles, we felt you got the best views on foot because they seemed to change ever so slightly the whole way along and it would have been inconvenient to stop so frequently. The info panels explained how fine lavender and lavandin were propagated, the differences between the 3 types of lavender (fine, aspic and lavandin) and the distillation process and the two types of distilleries (alambic and caisson). Although it was quite warm out, we managed to find just enough shade to prevent overheating. There was almost no traffic on these back roads so it was a very pleasant walk. We were very hot by the time we got back to the van but we had really enjoyed the whole 5.5 km loop. Our next stop was a nearby distillery called “Aroma Plantes”. They mainly distilled lavender but also about 25 other plants, mainly herbs like sage, thyme, and sariette. We got a short guided tour of their distillery which was essentially the same as the one on the Valensole plateau that we’d visited. We did learn a few new facts here such as lavender dried for a couple days and then distilled produces a better quality essential oil, aspic lavender is also cultivated and distilled and that mobile distillation (where a container of lavender is brought in from the field and placed directly onto the steamer, instead of being rolled into bales first and being placed into stationary steamers) is the more common method of distillation. The distillery wasn’t in use as they were only planning on harvesting starting next week. I guess we had lucked out in catching the distillation in Valensole. After our short tour, we wandered around their boutique and sampled a number of plant syrups such as a lavender, thyme, sage and sariette. We didn’t really like any of them to buy some so we continued on our way and drove on to our next campsite in Vaison-la-Romaine. We had originally been planning on staying in Malaucène, but it was full. So we drove out to Vaison and found a campsite a few kms out of town with a tiny bit of shade and more importantly, a pool.