Saint-Étienne and Firminy: The Last Mine Shaft, the Museum of Arms, Ribbons and Bicycles and Le Corbusier's Church
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
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Stéphanois Miner
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250
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+100 France
= 350 total
1 day
Saint-Étienne and Firminy: The Last Mine Shaft, the Museum of Arms, Ribbons and Bicycles and Le Corbusier's Church
250 + 100 XP
The Couriot mine museum, opened in 1991, occupies the buildings of Saint-Étienne's last pit, whose cables were cut on 5 April 1973, on a site of 15 hectares, 30 with its spoil heaps — the most complete surviving witness to the Loire coalfield. The town's Musée d'Art et d'Industrie, founded in 1889, shows the three industries that made it: the second largest arms collection in France after the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, the largest ribbon collection in the world, and the bicycles of a city that built France's first one in 1886. At Firminy, the concrete church of Saint-Pierre, one of Le Corbusier's last projects, had its first stone laid on 28 May 1970, five years after his death, but building only began in 1973, stopped in 1978 and stood as a bare socle the locals called the blockhaus for thirty years before being finished in November 2006.
Required Activities
1
of 4
At Couriot, work through the day buildings in the order a miner used them — the grand lavabo where nearly 2,000 men changed, the lampisterie where the lamps were serviced, the winding-engine hall — then go down the reconstructed gallery, and remember that the last shift here on 5 April 1973 went down to switch off the pumps and had to come back up a different shaft
2
of 4
Take the museum a floor at a time and find one thing on each: in the arms rooms — the biggest collection in France after the Musée de l'Armée — a gun from the old Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne; in the world's largest ribbon collection, a Jacquard loom; and among the cycles, Vélocio's own machine, nicknamed the heap of scrap iron, beside the Michaux velocipede of 1867
3
of 4
Inside Saint-Pierre, stand under the truncated concrete cone — 25 m square at the base, 33 m to the top — and find the constellation of Orion that the holes pierced in the east wall throw across the nave in daylight
4
of 4
Walk out from the church across Firminy Vert, the model town Eugène Claudius-Petit set going in 1953, and judge Le Corbusier's reason for taking a church commission he had refused before: he said he was doing it because it was meant for workers
At Couriot, work through the day buildings in the order a miner used them — the grand lavabo where nearly 2,000 men changed, the lampisterie where the lamps were serviced, the winding-engine hall — then go down the reconstructed gallery, and remember that the last shift here on 5 April 1973 went down to switch off the pumps and had to come back up a different shaft
Take the museum a floor at a time and find one thing on each: in the arms rooms — the biggest collection in France after the Musée de l'Armée — a gun from the old Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne; in the world's largest ribbon collection, a Jacquard loom; and among the cycles, Vélocio's own machine, nicknamed the heap of scrap iron, beside the Michaux velocipede of 1867
Inside Saint-Pierre, stand under the truncated concrete cone — 25 m square at the base, 33 m to the top — and find the constellation of Orion that the holes pierced in the east wall throw across the nave in daylight
Walk out from the church across Firminy Vert, the model town Eugène Claudius-Petit set going in 1953, and judge Le Corbusier's reason for taking a church commission he had refused before: he said he was doing it because it was meant for workers
Before you go
Couriot opens all year, Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm, and is closed every Monday and on 1 January, 1 May, 14 July, 15 August, 1 November and 25 December. The ticket desks shut at 5.30pm and the rooms at 5.45pm. The descent into the gallery is a guided visit of an hour and a quarter that runs at its own set times — not the museum's opening hours — and you have to be at the ticket desk 15 minutes before it leaves, so fix your slot before doing anything else.
The underground gallery is cool and damp all year and involves stairs and uneven ground; take a layer and sensible shoes.
Firminy is about 10 km from Couriot and needs a vehicle or the tram-and-bus connection. The church, Unité d'habitation, stadium and cultural centre are one Le Corbusier site with a shared ticket and its own closing day.
Three ticketed sites in four hours is tight. If you have one day, do Couriot in the morning and Firminy in the afternoon and leave the Musée d'Art et d'Industrie for another time.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
250 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
350 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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