Twelve kilometres southeast of St-Jean in the direction of Anduze, PRAFRANCE has an extraordinary and very appealing garden consisting exclusively of bamboos of all shapes and sizes: La Bambouseraie (March to mid-Nov daily 9.30am–6pm; €6), the result of its creator's pet passion. An easy way to get here is to take the steam train from St Jean du Gard; it takes just ten minutes.If you want to leave the area by main-line train, the place to head for is ALÈS on the Nîmes–Paris line. This was a major coal-mining centre, though 25,000 jobs have been lost and all but two opencast pits closed in the last four decades. Today, it has a superb museum on the history and techniques of coal-mining, known as the Mine Témoin, in the underground workings of a disused mine on chemin de la Cité Ste-Marie in the Rochebelle district (tours daily: June 10am–6.30pm; July & Aug 9am–7.30pm; Sept–May 9am–12.30pm & 2–5.30pm; €7.50; last visit 1hr 30min before closing; tours in English July & Aug Wed between 2 and 5pm).
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