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PASTEL

"Pastel" brings to mind a small, soft stick of colour that artists use to create drawings or paintings. Pastel pictures retain their colour very well over time.
The term also refers to a dying plant (woad) whose cultivation, processing and marketing formed the basis of the amazing prosperity of the Languedoc at the end of the XVth century.
The quality of the indelible blue colour obtained after processing was very sought after at the time by dyers from all over Europe.

The prosperous "Blue Gold" trade

"Isatis tinctoria", a yellow-flowered plant, was already established in the Lauragais and the Toulouse and Albi areas by the XIIth century and known for its colouring properties. At the dawn of the Renaissance, the Albi area became one of the largest centers of production and export in France, selling as far afield as Spain, Flanders and England.
This trade enabled the amassing of colossal fortunes, evidence of which can still be seen in magnificent town houses today.

Farmers and townsfolk saw to cultivation and local trade, whilst large-scale marketing was managed by dealers in the big cities.
This economic activity developed in an area formed by the triangle Albi–Toulouse-Carcassonne known as the "Pays de Cocagne".

Processing and marketing

The pastel cycle takes 4 years from planting to actually using the dye pigment.
Only the leaves of the plant were used to obtain the pigment and were processed as follows:

Harvested from June to November
Shredded and reduced to sheets of paste
Formed into grapefruit-sized "coques" (round cakes) – hence the expression "Pays de Cocagne"
Dried then marketed – (the "coques" became hard and dry)
Macerated to obtain the pigment or dye bath
Dyeing of cloth.

The coming of indigo

Bad harvests, bad weather, and dishonest financial dealings all contributed to the collapse of the pastel trade, which was supplanted by indigo .
1561 marks the end of the pastel boom.
Indigo, imported from the Indies, as the name implies, is cheaper and easier to work.

A brief revival

In the early XIXth century, Napoleon 1^st created the Pastel School in Albi . All the soldiers of the Empire were dressed in uniforms dyed with pastel. This use was short-lived.