Rustrel

Rustrel is a small village dominated by its castle. Nestling on the side of a hill and backing on to the Plateau d'Albion in the Luberon regional park, Rustrel looks out over the unique landscape known as the Colorado Provençal, created by centuries of ochre mining in the Pays d'Apt. Many open-pit mines can be seen from the ‘Ochre Trail’, which allows visitors to admire the twenty different shades of ochre that make the cliffs so spectacular, as well as the cheminées de fée (‘fairies' chimneys) nearby. These unusual features are the result of the orange-yellow ochre which makes up the soil being gradually eroded.

What to see and visit: the Colorado Provençal; the seventeenth-century castle, now the town hall; the wash houses and fountains; the sixteenth-century Saint-Romain parish church; the old olive oil mill in the village centre; the ruins of the eleventh-century Saint-Julien priory.
Recommended activities: walking, fishing.

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