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.