Ochre is a natural dye used since prehistoric times. The ochre vein in the Luberon area, also called "the Colorado Provencal", is the biggest of the world. It goes from Apt to Roussillon via Gargas and Rustrel. You will easily recognize it by its beautiful colours of red, orange and yellow contrasting with the white limestone surroundings.

Seventeen ochre tints were once quarried here. It was especially in the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century that business was at its best and exported all around the world.

The process was extremely simple: extraction, washing in order to separate sand from ochre (ochre is much lighter than sand so sand will deposit earlier), setting in open-air basins, drying by the sun and once dry the ochre was crushed into fine powder and burned to obtain the deep red colour.

In the 50ies, when synthetic dyes were developed, the ochre production dropped and finally stopped in 1958. Only one company still operates.

In the village of Roussillon, you can admire one of the old open-air quarries.

The red colour gave also birth to a legend of the village:

Raymond d'Avignon was the Lord of the village who spend all his time hunting. His beautiful wife Sermonde felt lonely and fell in love with a troubadour called Guillaume. Unfortunately, her husband discovered their love affaire. He invited Guillaume for hunting and killed him in the woods. When he came home at the castle, he prepared for his charming wife a delicious meal. Once she had finished her dinner, he announced her that it was her lover's heart she had been eating. Sermonde was extremely upset; she ran to the window and jumped out. Her blood coloured for always the earth around Roussillon.