Colorado Provencal

The Colorado Provencal at Rustrel is a worked landscape rather than a natural one: ochre sands were quarried here from the 1870s until the last extraction ceased in the 1990s, and rain has since eroded the spoil and the cut faces into pinnacles, fans and gullies in bands of red, orange, violet and white. Marked circuits of thirty minutes to two hours run through named features, the Cheminees de Fee and the Sahara among them. Water is a constant part of the story: the pigment was separated by washing, and the settling basins and channels are still traceable. It covers around thirty hectares of walkable ground.

What you actually see

• The eroded pillars - fairy chimneys and fans in banded ochre.
• The Sahara - a pale sand basin among the red workings.
• The washing basins - settling tanks and channels from the industry.
• The marked circuits - routes of thirty minutes to two hours.

When to go

April to June and September to October; low sun deepens the colour. Summer is hot with almost no shade. Trails close after heavy rain because the sand turns to slick clay.

Honest expectations

Ochre dust stains shoes and clothes permanently. There is no shade and no water on the circuits. Parking is charged and the site is a working private property with strict path rules.

Nearby

Roussillon lies west; Apt is south.