Smartrippers

The ochre trail of Roussillon: A disappointing walk

Written by SandrinePublished on 05/07/16
Interest
Access

Located in the village of Roussillon, the ochre path allows you to discover beautiful fairy chimneys carved in the hillside. Here, it is the extraction of ochre from previous centuries that shaped the site. Today, the site has not been exploited for years and there are still superb forms with yellow, red, orange and of course ochre colours.

1The discovery of fairy chimneys

But to access the site, you will have to pay 2€50 entrance fees (price for an adult), in addition to the parking (see Roussillon). Once there, two well-equipped trails take you around the site through a beautiful pine forest. Viewpoints are arranged to admire the sculpted cliffs. Here, it is necessary to stay on the path, so it is not possible to approach the sculptures.

The fairy chimneys of Roussillon
A visit a little too fastA short loop goes around the main sites in 35 minutes according to the brochure, and a longer loop takes you out into the forest and lasts 15 minutes, or 50 minutes for a long tour. Finally, that's what the brochure says, because we covered the big loop in only 30 minutes. It is therefore not certain that the times indicated in the brochure are very reliable.Watch out for the wooden steps that have been laid out on the path because they can be slippery with the sand.
In the end, although the forms to admire are very beautiful, the visit did not enchant us. On the one hand, because it is quite fast because we only have access to 3 or 4 points of view on the chimneys (we expected to see more). Then the site is crowded! So it's the crowd in the stairs and at each fence, which is a shame.Personally we preferred the site of Colorado Provencal, which is more playful and larger.
Our opinion
We like

The lovely fairy chimneys.

The setting of the site with its pine forest.

About us

We are Sandrine and Flo, French thirty-somethings. In 2019 we quit everything to live our dream, become nomads and travel around the world. We left with our baby, Lena, who was only 5 months old at the time. After a first trip around the Pacific Ocean by plane and a long 3 months stay in Hawaii, we left to discover Iceland for 3 months on board our 4WD pickup truck and truck camper. Then we continued our adventure in North America.

Today, if we can continue this adventure, it is above all thanks to our blog, Smartrippers! We created it one day in 2016, with the desire to share our good travel tips, without thinking that it would lead us there! We have developed it a lot over the years and have become experts on our 3 favorite destinations: Hawaii, Iceland and the American West. We now guide you to these destinations to help you plan the trip of your dreams!

Follow our adventures!