Having to cancel a trip (partially) was an experience I had never had before June 2026. But fortunately, I achieved the main goal of the trip: to see the famous lavender fields of Provence. This was our ambitious plan, but it didn’t come to fruition solely due to circumstances beyond our control.

A serious health issue involving my travel companion’s mother forced us to cut our trip short. Back home, within a few hours, I came up with—and then, despite a few setbacks, carried out—Plan B to make the most of the remaining days of my vacation.

I had been in that area in 2009, but it was June, so it was too early for the flowers to bloom. Besides, there were several reasons why that trip turned out to be a bad choice of company.

This time, however, I was with a friend I get along with really well, and it was the perfect time to see the lavender fields. Since we theoretically had more days available (eight), we’d planned to get there by making a few stops along the way to avoid a trip that was too long by car. The plan also included seeing places that were new to me, as well as revisiting some places I’d been to before. While everything was new to her, I was looking forward to revisiting the most important sites under different circumstances. In particular, along the way, we’d stop for a brief visit to two cities I know well and really like: Genoa and Marseille.

A new reason to cancel a trip: the heat

June 2026 was the hottest month on record. In the past, I visited Egypt, Iran, and Jordan in the summer, since that’s the only time I can take vacation. I’ve never had any problems with the heat. One of my mottos has always been: vacation is better than work, no matter what.

I’m not so sure about that anymore. Especially since it’s now almost impossible to sleep without air conditioning on those sweltering, muggy European summer evenings. We had problems as early as our first night in Genoa. With a room near the sea on the third floor, I just hadn’t considered the possibility that it might be hot.

It was the last thing I would have expected—to run into problems like that while camping. We were on flat ground, near Arles, but at a campground surrounded by vegetation. We stayed there only one night before deciding to head back, but even without the health issue, I don’t know if we would have been able to stay. I struggled to sleep outdoors and was attacked by insects. My friend lay awake in the tent.

At least I had booked my accommodations for the return trip with the option to cancel them without penalty.

Videos of the Most Visited Lavender Fields

Canceling a trip—even if it’s only halfway through—is never fun, especially given the reasons, but at least we were able to visit some of the places we had originally planned to see:

• Genoa
• Aix-en-Provence
• Salon-de-Provence
• Les Baux-de-Provence
• Avignon
• Arles
• Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (with a drive through the Camargue)
• Sénanque Abbey

That’s where I took the featured photo and the video that follows. It’s considered the best place to see lavender fields. That’s right—Provence isn’t, as some might expect, a vast expanse of purple flowers. You have to go looking for the lavender! From this article, it might seem like we feasted our eyes on lavender fields, but it’s actually always the same!

Starting from Ravenna, we covered a lot of kilometers in just a few days, and I covered many more in the days that followed, but it was worth it. Here’s how I found a way to keep my vacation going: having a Plan B—but also a Plan C and D—and taking a boat trip

Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent

Countries visited in my travel stories

Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives