In the 15th and 16th centuries, growing pastel in the Albi area and the Lauragais transformed the Midi round Toulouse into the “Land of Cockayne”. Pastel, the woad plant, was exported all over Europe and brought riches to its merchants and traders, who were thus able to express their prosperity in the Renaissance architecture of private town-houses, towers, churches and pigeon-houses...

The arrival of indigo proved the end of this golden age, but today pastel is making a come-back! Perhaps the beginning of a new economic and cultural up-swing ...