Tourist information -
Saint Etienne
St Étienne , 78km northeast of Le Puy, is
not a particularly appealing town. Almost unrelievedly industrial,
it was a major armaments manufacturer, enclosed for kilometres around
by mineworkings, warehouses and factory chimneys. However, like
so many other industrial centres, it has fallen on hard times, and
the demolition gangs have moved in to raze its archaic industrial
past, which does not add to its charms.
The centre is bland, and the mood is that of decline since the
closure of the coal fields, but its Musée d'Art Moderne at
La Terrasse, in the north of the city (daily except Tues 10am-6pm;
28F/?4.27) justifies a detour for anyone with an interest in twentieth-century
art - a quite unexpected treasure house of contemporary work, both
pre- and post-World War II, with a good modern American section,
in which Andy Warhol and Frank Stella figure prominently, along
with work by Rodin, Matisse, Léger and Ernst, and rooms filled
entirely with French art, imaginatively laid out to exciting effect.
La Terrasse station is served by frequent trains from St-Étienne's
central station, Châteaucreux. The Musée d'Art et d'Industrie
, 2 place Louis-Comte, is also good on St-Étienne's industrial
background, including the development of the revolutionary Jacquard
loom.
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