musee de l'ardoise

When we had our roof renewed at our house in Anjou we were advised that slate roofing tiles were 'de rigueur' in the region. The distinctive black and white of buildings in Anjou comes from the use of local slate quarried at Trélazé near Angers, and tuffeau stone, also locally quarried. Unfortunately, local slate is now too expensive for most people's pockets so we bought slate tiles imported from Portugal, but a visit to the Musée de l'Ardoise gave us an excellent insight into the traditional extraction of slate in this area. The museum gives details of extraction methods of years gone by and a view, accompanied by many photographs, of the lives of the people involved in the industry. The highlight was a demonstration of cutting to size through slicing and chipping by hand.

It would be easy to under-estimate this local museum. Set back from the main road, in a vast area of industrial archaeology, the museum is based on a slate-mine that closed just 40 years ago. You can see the pit-head equipment, how the slate was used, a reconstructed cottage & loads of photographic displays. There was also an english film, shown specially for the three of us.There was an english leaflet to enable you to self-guide, but the attendant insisted on showing us around himself. He spoke no english at all (& certainly our french didn't stretch to technical geological terms) but his patience, charm & dramatic use of arms gave us a really good tour.

on imagine la mine, son fonctionnement, son ambiance, l'ame, la dureté de ce métier, condition de travail, tres bon témoignage de notre histoire