Ochre lands: Provençal Colorado in living color
Here the earth is streaked with fiery red and yellow-green. It can also be orange which turns to purple in the setting sun ... A thousand shades of colour come and go amidst the ochre sands that are part of the Luberon landscape.
It all goes back to the sea which once covered this area. When the sea dried up several million years ago, pouring rain slowly transformed the accumulated layers of limestone slowly transformed into ochre-bearing sands.
Ochre was first used as a natural paint in the painted caves that prehistoric man embellished. It was later rediscovered at the time of the French Revolution, and was sold throughout the world for over a century. Ochre is a natural pigment with indelible colour. Ochre is enjoying a revival now, for it is used in many activities, such as paint, decoration, ceramics and construction.