
One of my favorite places that I visited in Provence was Roussillon. I had never heard of the place, so I wasn't prepared for how overwhelmed I was by the beauty of an entire village colored by the dirt around it.
This small village, population about 1,300, is built on top of a steep-sided mountain of ochre. The buildings blended right in with the countryside around it.


Since it is a hill top village, it was interesting to look over the walled edges to see the bright rust-colored cliffs and pretty little farms below. The combination of the ochre-colored dirt and the green crops and trees was beautiful.

From a distance, the buildings almost look like they are piled one on top of another. But once we entered the village, we realized that there are interesting little roads, alleyways, and paths that weave between and around and even under the buildings.

We just picked a road at random and started following it. The village is too small to get seriously lost. Sometimes we might come to a dead end, but we'd just turn around and follow another road which might suddenly round a bend to reveal a lovely little plaza with small shops offering flowers or wine or art supplies.
The plazas were all dotted with restaurants that had a kitchen and a few tables inside with the preferred seating outdoors under umbrellas and surrounded by pots of herbs and flowers.
I couldn't resist buying a box of pastels of the "local colors" of Roussillon. It's been nine years and I still haven't used them. They are too beautiful to mess them up! Maybe this post will encourage me to use them for some drawings of Roussillon.
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