The French colorado is located in a small village called “Rustrel” (620 inhabitants!) in the “Luberon“, which is a mountain range (Alpes-de-Haute Provence department in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) at about 60 km from Avignon city. The colorado stretches over 30 hectares and offers an amazing range of colours going from bright yellow to vivid orange, reminding the American colorado.

In the XIX and XX centuries, the colorado of Rustrel was exploited for its precious ochre (25 different colours on the site). The ochre industry reached its apogee in 1929, when 40 000 tons of pigment were extracted, most of it in Rustrel.

The ochre is used even today in the building industry for coloring coatings, tiled floors, tiles…the industrial and artistic paintings also use ochre.

More surprisingly, we also find ochre in cosmetic products (powder and make-ups) and even in the food (sausage skin, rind cheeses…)

The exploitation of the colorado has stopped today but the site is open to visitors.

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