Blue Shutters and Flower Pots

• Tender loving care has been applied to the small garden of red clay window pots.
• Blue shutters common in Provence
• The ancient limestone stone walls

Nearly every window shutter in the south of France is painted this particular blue: unmistakable., milky, thick and luminous.

The blue colour is so memorable and specific because it originally (before synthetic paints) came from a one-and-only source, a very particular plant: woad.

Since ancient times, the flowering plant woad was an important source of blue dye and was cultivated throughout Europe, especially in Western and Southern Europe. In the early 20th century woad was replaced by synthetic blue dyes.