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The Ochres of Roussillon - Gem of the Luberon
Thème : Visit - Auteur : Gerlinde (06/27/2019)
A true geological curiosity, the ochres of Roussillon flaunt dazzling colours mixing reds, oranges and yellows - bright, warm shades that go to make this place one of the most famous sites in the Luberon. The history, the landscape, the village: there are so many ways to discover or rediscover the ochre that all you have to do is choose your way in to this world so rich in colour. Nicknamed the Colorado of Provence, the old ochre quarries of Roussillon are an open-air site traversed by many paths offering excursions to delight cyclists and hikers alike. With sandy hills alternating with plains worn smooth by wind and rain, the quarries show their character in their colour and shape, and are richly endowed with a varied and unusual landscape.
If the sun blazing down through the twisted branches of the pines that spring up from the sandy, golden soil of the hills of the Rustrel Colorado has left you feeling tired, you can cool off and relax on a cultural visit to the Broux mine galleries, where you can learn all about the ochre industry from the 19th century onwards. Deep in these passageways, carved out by pickaxe, rising to a vault fifteen metres or so in height, the feeling is like being in the middle of a church, in the heart of an underground cathedral in a soothing silence that not even the wind can disturb. Then at last you can follow the daylight at the end of a gallery and come back out into the sun, looking forward to a nice, cool ice cream or a drink on a terrace as a pleasant way to round off the day. Then, it’s off to Roussillon to sit in a square whose walls combine ochres of all shades, in the middle of a brightly coloured village, a gem atop a pine-clad hill, from where you can make out the languid silhouette of Mount Ventoux.
https://www.roussillon-en-provence.fr
https://www.colorado-provencal.com
