Or if you like better the French name (which also sounds more promising) Musee de la Lavande in Coustellet, Provence, maybe a museum which most do not know about, and surely wouldn't think of coming here especially for a visit. Yet this is a place and a town with an interesting history, a surprising and enduring charm, an a long tradition in growing and processing the delicate lavender plant. For without the hard work and dedication of the Lincele family, wellknown here for growing and distilling the best lavender you could imagine - or so the locals say - there wouldn't be a museum. For it is this family that has, for several generations, grown and processed the lavender and always found customers fascinated by the fragrance and convinced by the medicinal qualities of the plant. A plant which is at once so filled with strong perfume, with a rich and vibrant colour and so beautiful in the field, the lavender was grown and used since ever. It was known and popular in Ancient Egypt, both for it's aroma and it's decorative charm, the Greeks and Romans were also using it for it's healing characteristics (which made it rather expensive for just a plant) and it's very name seems to come from the Latin "lavare", translated as "to wash", as the lavender plants were used in the Roman baths. You can find it virtually all over the world, yet in the Provence region, in Southern France, it occupies vast spaces and thousands of growers and simply fans of lavender come here to discover one of the very best plantations. And every and each year several tons of lavender oil of the best quality in the world are produced here. No chemicals, nothing fake as the old historical recipes are still used - tradition is the most important after all - only a product for those who want the best.
And the museum is dedicated to the history, practices, recipes and fascination of this local industry, with all it's secrets and myths, and all about Provence and especially Coustellet. Documents and photographs, old distilling tools and ways to make the fields of lavender even more healthy, ancient posters and how to use lavender as a medicinal plant, all of these and much more just in the Lavender Museum in Provence. If you can visit this place you can also buy some essential lavender oil in the small gift shop, and you could keep it for yourself or give it as a present.
Photo: lavendermuseum.com
