BELGIUM: Grand Palace in the heart of Brussels awash with lavender

The sweet perfume of lavender is wafting over a cloudy Brussels, carrying with it the promise of southern European holidays, romances and calm repose. The historic Grande Place, in the heart of the Belgian capital, is awash with 6000 lavender plants, trying to seduce passers by into visiting the land of the famed French writer Marcel Pagnol. It's the idea of Eric Olive, a lavender producer, who says few people realise how versatile the little fragrant flower can be. "An enormous amount of professionals live off this product. People who grow lavender, people who cut lavender, people who distil lavender, we make a lot of oils out of lavender and there are private enterprises that use lavender in cosmetics to produce perfumes, to make massage oils and creams. Its used in cooking and you can make lavender tarts," Olive says. Not only is it good for you it's good for the economy he says and to prove it the promoters have dotted little workshops around the fields of blue as well as placed a huge copper lavender press that makes essential oil to explain how to make use of the lavender. Olive says they too are fighting off competition from China. But why buy from there when you can get it in huge quantities from his native provence is what he says. "French and European lavender, since its produced in the south of France, and in strong competition with other countries, throughout the world, not least China. Through our Brussels operation we hope defend French lavender in relation to foreign lavender and Chinese lavender in particular," Olive said. Operation Seduction, as they called it, was a great success amongst bemused tourists and passers-by. "Yes the project here is original. now the point is either to promote lavender or to introduce southern France, its one of the other. But for me it's original its a little bit like the flower carpet in the summer. It's nice we do it now with lavender it's perfect," one Belgian said. "It's a bit different to what you see on the postcards. It's usually the ornaments from different flowers and this year it's really really like blue," one tourist said. "I probably needs some aromatherapy in my life so we are on the strip so we can relax. So Maybe we'll grab a little if we are allowed to," said an American national. The show will go on for three days and end on Sunday and promoters hope the sun will shine over their fields. The weather forecast for the weekend is good but even without the sun, the intoxicating little flower is guaranteed to bring a ray of blue sunshine to the northern European city.

ITN Source | June 23, 2006

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