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Location details
Colorado Provencal
The journey(s):
GPS*: 43.9134°, 5.4962°
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The Colorado Provencal is a former ochre quarry near the village of Rustrel. From 1871 onwards ochre was quarried here in large quantities to be used as a color pigment. The surrounding towns and villages were the site of a fair-sized industry occupied with the laborious task of cleaning and processing the material. Along with the ochre mines in nearby Roussillon, Rustrel was one of the most important sources of the pigment in the world: at the peak of the industry in around 1930 tens of thousands of tons were mined in this region each year! For a long period ochre mining and processing was the most important commercial activity of the entire region. Only when the development of chemical pigments made the extraction of natural ochre unprofitable were the mines abandoned, and in 1992 the last ochre miner finally retired.
This extensive site, which can easily be reached and is interlaced with a number of paths, provides examples of ochre in a whole range of colors, from light, creamy white to deep red: it is said that there are 25 different shades here.
We visited this location on 1.8.2005 at 7.45 a.m.
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