Crimson & Emerald & Lavender

Crimson is the poppy — the deep vivid crimson-to-scarlet of the wild field poppy (Papaver rhoeas — French: coquelicot — one of the most immediately recognizable wildflowers of Europe and the most symbolic flower of the Western Front of the First World War — associated with Remembrance Day through John McCrae's 1915 poem 'In Flanders Fields' and the subsequent adoption of the red poppy as the symbol of the Royal British Legion and Commonwealth war remembrance traditions). In the Provençal landscape, Papaver rhoeas appears as the most vivid and most immediately eye-catching wildflower — growing in dense crimson-to-scarlet drifts in cereal fields, road margins, and the uncultivated margins of lavender fields and olive groves from approximately late April through June (the poppy's flowering season in southern France). The specific crimson-to-scarlet of P. rhoeas petals (the petals are tissue-thin and specifically luminous — transmitting light like a tiny stained-glass panel when backlit by morning or evening sun) is one of the most intensely saturated reds in the natural world, produced by the anthocyanin compound cyanin (cyanidin-3-sophoroside). The cultural significance of the poppy in the Provençal landscape: the fields of wild coquelicots against the blue-sky background and the honey-stone villages of Provence have been painted by more artists than any other specifically Provençal scene — Claude Monet painted 'Poppies' (Les Coquelicots, 1873 — now at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris) depicting poppies in the Argenteuil fields near Paris; Vincent van Gogh painted Provençal scenes with poppies from Arles (1888-1889); and the Provençal poppy field has been the subject of more landscape photography than any other single French agricultural scene. Emerald is the garrigue — the vivid jewel-green of the Provençal garrigue (French: garrigue — from Occitan: garriga — the scrubby, aromatic, low-growing vegetation of the limestone plateau terrain of southern France). The garrigue is the characteristic low scrub ecosystem of the Mediterranean limestone terrain — dominated by: rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis — now reclassified as Salvia rosmarinus — with vivid dark green needle-like leaves and blue-violet flowers); thyme (Thymus vulgaris — with small bright green leaves); kermes oak (Quercus coccifera — a very low, very dense, very prickly evergreen oak scrub, with vivid dark green small leaves); cistus (Cistus spp. — rock rose — with vivid green leaves and white or pink flowers); and French lavender (Lavandula stoechas — Spanish lavender — a more showy lavender than L. angustifolia, with vivid green stems and deep purple flower heads). In late May and early June (before the Provençal summer heat — the canicule — turns the garrigue vegetation a dry olive-khaki), the garrigue is specifically vivid emerald-to-bright green, creating the most intensely colored green ground against which the crimson poppies and the beginning lavender appear most dramatically. Lavender is the bloom — the characteristic pale medium lavender-purple of the blooming lavender fields (Lavandula angustifolia — true lavender — French: lavande vraie — the most highly prized lavender species for essential oil quality) on the Valensole Plateau (approximately 800 meters altitude — the high plateau of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département, between the towns of Valensole, Riez, and Manosque). The Valensole plateau lavender bloom: the approximately 10,000 hectares of Lavandula angustifolia cultivated on the Valensole Plateau typically reach peak bloom in the first two weeks of July (the precise timing varies with the weather of each year — late springs may delay bloom to mid-July, while warm springs may advance it to mid-June). The lavender row pattern (rows approximately 1.5 meters apart, with bare earth between rows, creating an alternating stripe of purple-grey lavender and red-brown earth) and the characteristic pale medium lavender-purple of the L. angustifolia flowers (paler and more muted than the deeper purple of Lavandula x intermedia — lavandin — the most commercially important lavender hybrid, which produces more oil but of lower quality) is the most immediately recognizable visual element of the Provençal summer landscape.