Three hundred years of a proud industry became history here Friday with a last, symbolic, shovelful of coal set to mark the closure of France's last-ever coalmine.
The pit is in Lorraine, once the throbbing heart of French heavy industry. Nuclear power and foreign competition have killed off a great tradition associated with sacrifice and the classic years of industrial struggle.
Coalmining started in France in 1720 and assumed a vital role in its 19th century industrial development.
As elsewhere in Europe, French coalminers in their heyday were at the centre of workers' struggles for better conditions, the heroes of "Germinal," one of the great novels of social criticism by 19th century novelist Emile Zola.
But, as elsewhere in Europe, French coalmining has been gradually dying for years.
The newspaper L'Humanite, flagship of the once powerful French communist party - now almost as withered as the French coal industry - mourned the passing of an industrial elite that once provided the backbone of French communism.
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