French Woad/ Bleu De Lectoure

One of the most enjoyable parts of traveling within a foreign country, is exploring it's local crafts. In France, outside of Toulouse, we had the opportunity to visit Bleu De Lectoure, a workshop that uses woad (the plants pictured in image #2, above) to produce textiles and other goods. 

Woad was a huge industry in this area, long ago, before indigo was introduced from the far east. Now, only a handful of workshops and artisans use woad, but like indigo and other natural dyes, appreciation of and applications for this art form is growing.