The unexpected Colorado of Rustrel ranks among Provence?s most beautiful attractions. Situated on one of the largest ochre quarries in the world, the Colorado of Rustrel was, at one time, one of the best known producers of ochre in France. Today, the hues and the strange looking shapes of the outcrops, shaped by centuries of exposure to the elements, are simply breathtaking A bed of precious ochre that kept the families fed that exploited the quarry for over a century from 1871, when Jean Allemand set up the first ochre-washing works in the country. (There are 25 different colours on the site!) At the peak of its activity, in 1929, the ochre industry produced 40,000 ton of pigment, of which a considerable amount came from Rustrel. The last man to work the ochre bed in Rustrel retired in 1992 and only one company, the ?Société des Ochres de France?, still exploits the ochre at Gargas in the Apt region