Colorado Provençal de Rustrel, Provence, France
In the Luberon massif, between Roussillon and Rustrel, there is an area of the ochre. You can for example explore the disused opencast ochre mines or the areas in which it is located. One of these places can be found in Roussillon. The other one is located next to Rustrel, east of Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt. It is called Colorado Provençal because of its similarity to the American area of occurrence of this colourful rock. It is worth a visit because it is more "wild" and less visited by tourists than ochre mine "Sentier des Ocres" in Roussillon.
The parking at Colorado Provençal
You can reach the Colorado Provençal on the road D22. Neary the road you will find a large parking lot (P; GPS: 43.919877, 5.500517), where you can leave the car. There is also a possibility of consumption of a meal in the nearby restaurant "Les Mille Couleurs". For parking your car you will have to pay a fee (5 €).
Ticket prices
In addition of the parking fee, you also need to pay an entrance fee to the area of occurrence of ochre. The cost of tickets is as follows: 3 € - a ticket for a child; 6 € - a ticket for an adult. As you can see, the prices are not too low, considering the fact that - as we mentioned - you also have to pay for parking. However, the place is really worth visiting because of unique experiences and views. In the summer, the place is available from 8:00 to 19:00, so there is no problem with matching the desired time.
Visiting Colorado Provençal de Rustrel
While purchasing the tickets you will also obtain a map of the area with available trails. There are three official trails, and each differs from the other with duration and difficulty. Because this day we wanted also to visit Apt and Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt, we chose the shortest route (the blue one), but anyway we spent here almost two hours. First we walked along the trees (1, 2), then we came to the meadow (3), the aqueduct and a stream (4). After crossing the stream the landscape began to change. We noticed colored sand and rocks, and then hills in different ochre colors. We could climb some of these hills and admire the stunning views. Fortunately, there was almost no wind at all, because otherwise we would have been completely covered with colored sand. Regardless of the weather do not take too fine clothes - you'll still walk on the sand and dry clay :). If you want to arrive at the noon, be sure to bring a protection for your head against the sun and to take mineral water with yourself - the sun really heats up rocks and sand which radiaties so it makes you feel like Bear Grylls in Sahara or Cody Lundin in Utah :). After visiting the area we were returning just the same route we came from.
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