Small group provence and lavender museum day trip from avignon

Purple fields of fragrant lavender are the essence of Provence. Take this small group day trip from Avignon and you'll drive past fields of wild lavender and discover traditional village markets selling a shimmering palette of fruit, vegetables and flowers. Your minivan holds a maximum of eight passengers, and a small group tour is the perfect way to get to out-of-the-way places in one day.

The tour takes you to Sault, the lavender capital of Provence, or for a photo stop on the picturesque Claparedes plateau. There's free time and a lunch stop in Sault or the ochre-hued town of Roussillon to shop for floral essences, soaps, honey and all manner of scented products in the lavender shops.

You'll then take a drive across wild lavender fields, passing small villages including St. Jean and Lioux. You'll stop to visit the dry-stone village of Gordes, one of the most beautiful villages in France.

After a photo stop at Senanque Abbey, a Cistercian monument surrounded by a wonderful lavender field (in bloom mid-June to mid-July), it's on to the famous lavender museum in Coustellet. You'll learn all there is to know about lavender from the informative video, exhibition and demonstration of distillation.