Somewhat surprising in such a quintessentially rural part of France, DECAZEVILLE , some 28km southeast of Figeac, owes its place in the annals of the nation's history to coal-mining and the role its well-organized Communist miners played in the local maquis and Resistance. It was the centre of the Rouergue - as this province of France is known - coalfield, and only came into being in the nineteenth century. The last mines ceased working in 1965 after prolonged industrial action by the miners, with the all-too-familiar economic and social consequences. The enormous crater of the last working mine, an opencast one known as La Découverte , is unmissable as you leave town on the Aubin road. The one curiosity in Decazeville is the presence in the church of Notre-Dame of a dozen early paintings by the Symbolist Gustave Moreau, although you would need to be a committed devotee to come all this way for that reason alone.
Four kilometres south, neighbouring AUBIN has a mining museum, the Musée de la Mine (June to mid-Sept daily 10am-noon & 3-6pm; rest of year Sat & Sun 3-6pm; free), on the main square opposite the tourist office and a rather romantic bronze statue of a miner. Exhibits include an interesting collection of tools, clothing and equipment, and documentary evidence about strikes, accidents and local history.
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