Alès
In the 18th century, the wealth of Alès came from silk sales. Thousands of tons of cocoons and raw silk were traded.
It was only in the mid 19th century with the arrival of the railways, that coal replaced silk as an industry.
Thus Alès became an industrial centre of prime importance to the Languedoc.
Life revolved around the 20 000 miners of the prosperous period.
But then coal in its turn was stricken by the competition from new sources of energy, and the second half of the 20th century obliged the town to take a new direction.
Having an ideal geographical location at the point of convergence of several Cevennes valleys, it became not only a centre of commerce, but also of science, culture and tourism.
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