Rainbow Coalition

From the ochre quarries and purple lavender fields of Vaucluse to the violets of Toulouse, Robin Gauldie experiences the dazzling colours of southern France

- Robin Gauldie

My journey of discovery through the spectrum of the south starts in the Provençal town of Apt, in an area where ochre, the coloured clay earth used as pigment since prehistoric times, has been quarried for centuries.

These box canyons, cliffs and pinnacles of glowing red, orange and yellow seem to belong in the Wild West or even on Mars, not in Luberon. But these vivid, now-disused workings are an integral part of the area’s history. Today, you can follow walking trails such as the Sentier des Ocres in Roussillon and the Colorado Provençal in Rustrel.

The heat-resistant ochre has coloured pottery and tiles, as well as the warmly pink walls of pretty hill villages including Roussillon. However, it was not until 1780, when local chemist Jean-Étienne Astier discovered a way of making ochre into a permanent colourant, that the industry began in earnest.

A century ago, the quarries scattered around the Apt basin yielded up to 40,000 tons of ochre a year. These days, the last surviving ochre business, the Société des Ocres de France, based in Apt, produces just 900 tons of yellow ochre a year.

Like many of France’s traditional natural pigments, ochre was eventually superseded by brighter, more permanent chemical colourants, such as synthetic alizarin, which was invented in 1868. If you are looking for authentic Provençal colours for your home, visit Ocres de France in Apt to shop for traditional tones that even outshine Farrow & Ball. You can learn more about the history of the ochre trade at the Musée de l’Aventure Industrielle, also in Apt.

Golden spice