A symphony of earth tones, the old ocher quarry at Roussillon was once mined for 17 different tints of the mineral, which artists worldwide used to color paints and pottery. When ocher was made obsolete by cheaper, synthetic pigments, the quarry suffered losses and finally closed in 1958. Eroded and fragile, it has been declared a historical preserve; today tourist trails wind past walls of the chalk-soft rock.

—From "Essence of Provence," September 1995, National Geographic magazine