Lavender Harvesting and Distillation Workshop in Bellegarde

About this tour

Spend two and a half hours in a Bellegarde lavender field cutting blooms and operating a traditional copper still. You'll extract your own floral water and essential oil, bottling both to take home. The workshop runs you through the entire chain—from plant to finished product—using organic farming methods. It's hands-on work in the Provençal sun, and you'll leave with something you actually made.

Highlights

• Cut lavender directly from organic fields
• Operate a copper distillation still yourself
• Extract and bottle your own essential oil
• Take home fresh floral water you created
• Learn traditional Provençal extraction techniques
• Walk through the complete production process
• Handle all tools and protective equipment provided

What to expect

Arrive at the lavender farm and receive cutting shears and work gloves. You'll move into the fields and harvest bundles of blooms by hand—this takes up a good portion of the session and involves bending and repetitive motion. Once you've gathered enough, you'll move to the distillery building where the real technical work begins. Under guidance, you'll load your lavender into the still, manage the heat and condensation process, and watch as the first drops of liquid begin to form. There's genuine chemistry happening here, not theatre. You'll collect your floral water and essential oil into bottles you've prepared, labelling them yourself before departure.

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