Today, we’re rounding up our series of posts celebrating lavender — the universal oil — by visiting Young Living’s very own lavender farm in the heart of lavender country: Provence.
This region in the south-east of France, like its closely related Italian counterpart Tuscany, is the stuff dreams are made of. Find an old farmhouse just run down enough for the sake of a great romantic story, sell up everything to move there, renovate with the aid of quirky tradies, plant olives or vines, and write a bestseller through the recounting of your adventures. (Peter Mayle has much to answer for.)
With its long history of lavender cultivation, Provence is home to a nearly-as-long lineage of masters in the art of distillation.
Marcel Espieu was one such expert, having amassed 50 years of knowledge including wisdom passed on to him from his father and grandfather.
And while other adventurers dreamed of wine and olives, Gary Young (founder of Young Living Essential Oils) dreamed of learning the art of distillation from Marcel — “le maître” — after meeting one of Marcel’s students, Jean-Noël Landel, at a product expo in California. In a heartbeat, he knew Jean-Noël’s oils were of the finest quality he had ever come across. And so began Gary’s learning and passion that gave birth to Young Living.
In 2002, coming full circle, Gary and his dear friend Jean-Noël purchased a lavender farm in Simiane-la-Rotonde where they started growing lavender, clary sage, rosemary and so on. And now, you can explore their journey over on their newly-launched website, YL Provence.
Watch their bucolic video with its jaunty piano accordion soundtrack and you’ll want to book a trip before you leave. While it doesn’t come with ‘Play and Inhale’ technology to give you a lavender aromatherapy experience while you’re watching (someone’s probably developing an app for that!), put some lavender in your diffuser or put a drop on your wrists and inhale and you’re sorted. (Lavender comes in Young Living’s Everyday Oils Collection, which is a wonderful way to get started if you don’t have any oils yet.)
This will also connect you up with The Good Oil Team for our personal support and coaching. We'd love to help you on your journey to vibrant well-being the natural way!
Any questions? Please get in touch via our Contact page.
If you’d like to learn more about lavender, simply use the Search field to bring up more lavender posts and get lost for a while in lavender land. It’s a relaxing place to be.
