Lavender/Lavendin

We always love a day out in the Drome Provencal. I call it " hidden France"
Beautiful countryside with hill sides and plains dotted with a mixture of vines, olive trees, wheat fields, fruit trees and lavender.
A truly beautiful patchwork.

Lavendin is a hybrid resulting from the crossing of lavender with " aspic".
This is what you can see in the photos. Slightly taller than true lavender. More pungent and less refined.
It takes 100-120 kg of flower and stems to obtain 1kg of golden yellow Lavender oil, or 3kg of Lavendin oil.

Today the fields were covered in tiny white dots, which turned out to be 
moths, with wings like silk. ( included in my collage)
Cydalima perpectalis ....or Box Tree moths.
The caterpillars are a pest, which have now spread to England causing serious problems devouring the box trees.
Not sure why the moths find the lavender such a draw, but there were hundreds of them fluttering about between the flowers.

It was still very hot, but with a nice breeze, which turned into a strong wind in places.

Stopped for a look round the town of Grignon, and had a cooling panache/beer, before buying a quiche, slice of pizza and two gorgeous cakes ( one chocolate, and one apricot) for a picnic  we had, sat in the shade of the lime trees.

Popped into Nyons for a quick look round before coming back for a swim to cool down.

Another beautiful day. Can't believe our first week is almost over.

Very convenient that we were visiting the lavender fields for Flower Friday, with a bonus of the moths.
Many thanks to BikerBear for hosting FF again.