From the end of the 18th century, Jean-Étienne Astier extracted ocher from the Roussillon region. He removed the pigment from the cliffs with a pickaxe, washed it in a baker's kneader, dried it, and crushed it first using stone rollers and then the municipal oil mill from 1790. The ocher was then transported on the back of mules to Marseille from where it was exported throughout the world.