Photo : Jackie McLelland / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Colorado Provençal
The Colorado Provençal is a former ochre quarry of more than 30 hectares, at Rustrel, in Vaucluse, about ten kilometres from Apt. The ochre comes from glauconite-rich sands, deposited by the sea about 110 million years ago, then oxidised. Their iron-oxide content gives more than twenty shades, from vermilion red to golden yellow.
Exploitation began at the end of the seventeenth century with Jean-Étienne Astier, from Roussillon, who used settling basins. The arrival of the railway at Apt in 1877 allowed more intensive production, and the creation of the Société des Ocres de France in 1901 stimulated exports. Activity peaked in 1929, then declined in the face of synthetic dyes, and the last extraction took place in 1992.
Erosion has sculpted fairy chimneys, canyons and coloured cliffs that are explored on marked paths. The GR 6 also crosses the area. An association created in 2009 takes part in the preservation of the site with the commune.
