The Ochre Trail in 'Provence', Southern France

The hills of Vaucluse, in Provence, southern France is a strange Martian landscape as the earth covered red and yellow clay. This is Ochre or Ocher and among the best found in France. Ochre is used to make pigments for painting the walls, makeup, tiles and ceramics.

Ochre stems from the Greek word ochros and means yellow, is essentially a clay containing five to 20 percent iron oxide, and several other minerals, the effect on the color of clay. Although Cyprus is known for having the best quality brown ocher, red ocher and yellow can best be found in Provence. French ocher fact is concerned by many as the most pure and beautiful in the world, a declaration, which the experts testify.

Extracted ochre pigments have a long cultural history and a fan base that includes Cleopatra, Napoleon, Chanel and even Neanderthals, who use the ochre, paintings the walls of cave. In the caves of Altamira in Spain, painting of a herd of bison was estimated to be less than 16000 years old. Germanic tribes, believing that the red ocher had magical powers, painted the rune stones with it; ocher was put the on cheeks of Cleopatra to seduce Mark Antony, and what is called Mesopotamia, ancient civilizations believed that the clay that have been discovered is in the area of ​​the material from which God created Adam, whose name in Hebrew means man of the red earth .

The existence of the earth, the color of the blood may have helped lead to the belief that it was the location of the Garden of Eden, now in Iraq. During the Napoleonic Empire, was used to paint orange ocher houses in the French colonies. The Emperor Joseph II was so fond of yellow ocher in Provence that he had almost all the buildings of the Austro-Hungarian Empire painted with it.

Mansions and villas, churches and convents were all covered with pigment imported from France. Joseph's obsessed with golden color of 1780 led to his name, the Baroque yellow to the present day, the most famous palace of Schoenbrunn in Vienna, is a happy touch of ocher French.

Ochres Society of France or 'Societe des Ocres de France' (SOF) is the only company in France, which is extracted and the process of ocher in France and oversees all ochre quarries in the country. Only a small amount of ocher is taken from the earth today, compared to earlier centuries and 60 percent of ochre in Provence produced is exported. SOF is very careful not to contaminate the environment. Before the ocher quarries can start anywhere in Provence, a license is required, and before it is granted, an impact study was conducted to determine the potential environmental damage.

Licenses are granted for a period of 15 years. Once the work function came to an end, the company is obliged to restore the landscape and ensure that no dangerous open pits. To ensure the landscape is stable, the terraces of at least five feet are cut into the hills and the earth that is removed will be stored and later used as landfill. At Gargas cave, which is limited to the extraction of 12,500 square feet of clay, The SOF managed 300 cubic meters of recycled water is used every day, to wash the ochre. The fireplaces in Gargas plant equipped with filters to trap dust and prevent it being released into the atmosphere.

The SOF see ochres quarries as cultural heritage of the region and with good reason. Some sections of the ochres can be up to 35 meters thick. In some parts of southern France abandoned mines ocher with shafts 40 km long and seven meters high, supported only by ocher columns and look as beautiful red and yellow underground cathedrals. Local ochers factories closed long ago have slowly returned and refurbished to operate as a museums.

In the midst of the Martian landscape of Provence is the small town of Roussillon. The Romans used to dig here (ochre), and the town was called Vicus russulus (Red Village). Perched on a hill in the middle of the Luberon National Park in the Vaucluse department of southern France, Roussillon population only 1,161 inhabitants, but is visited each year by more than 120,000.00 tourist, curious to see the narrow streets, rustic wooden doorways and the facades of houses, which is hundreds of years have been painted with locally extracted ochre.

The Pigments, up to 17 different colors that are used as a sort of stand (colors) for the houses, which makes the city look as if it had been designed from the ground. Strolling through the maze of streets, you'll discover cars, bicycles, wagon wheels and old wooden chairs that have not been touched or cleaned from time to time, they are covered with a thick layer of ocher dust yellow and red. The mistral, which blows across Provence to the Mediterranean can fill the air with a sudden technicolor dust storm.

Roussillon was built on top of a ridge of red rock and walk up to the highest point in a small town, then Castrum offers panoramic views of this unique awesome landscape. The Vaucluse Plateau, slopes of Mont Ventoux and the Grand Luberon Valley, everything can be seen here, and all are filled with natural shades of the color box. Rich earth tones, vibrant Vermilion deep umber, the contrast clearly with dark green pine forests of the region and often beyond the blue sky without clouds over Provence.

For centuries, the myriad of natural tones have attracted many artists, including Jean Cocteau, Jean Carzou, Bernard Buffet and Paul Cézanne. Ochre is a pigment ideal for artists as it can be mixed with a variety of media both water and oil-based and provide a natural painting. Ochre also played a significant role in trying to capture impressions of Cezanne reality. It is also in the Roussillon, you will find the old Mathieu ochre factory that was built in 1923 and was operational until 1957, and where the washing pools remain open until 1963. Today, it consists of two factories in an original building of 1923, completely renovated. The ochre-old fired oven are also back in operation and there is a sink site, the area covers a large area of ​​50,000 sq meters. Visitors will see demonstrations of ochre be extracted and processed, but nothing beats a visit to the quarry.

Imagine any visitors who visit this place, they would be like a tiny visitors in an alien world, travelers look like Astronauts bumping into uncharted territory of an alien planet, as they make their way past huge ochre cliffs. Visitors follow the trail of Sentier des Ochre (Ochre Trail), a series of tracks with stunning views of the sunset cliffs. The trails will take you through 15 km which is locally known as Colorado Provence. Quarries and mines formed the canyons and pillars and through the years they have been worn by erosion from wind and rain.

Ochre Conservatory and Pigments applications or in French words, Conservatoire des Ocres et des Pigments Appliques , a private museum was created in 1994 to preserve local heritage and teach future generations about the continued importance of ochre, conducts tours of the bizarre, the landscape of another world. When you return from your trip, you will find your white shirt turns yellow and your shoes dusted with powdered red ochre courtesy of the dust.