Quarries of the good times

Junas is a small community in the Department of Gard but on the border of Herault. High quality building stones, hard limestones and grey marbles, have been mined in the region since Roman times, but documentary history of the community dates only from the mid-eighteenth century. The quarrymen found a nearby market in the Camargue lowlands, where there are no local supplies of stone, but they also despatched stone for prestigious buildings in most of the principal cities of southern France.

Stone extraction ceased in 1939, but the most spectacular of the workings, les Carrieres de Bon Temps, have become the location of the annual Rencontres de la Pierre (Meetings concerned with stone), at which more than 150 stone cutters, sculptors, mosaicists and blacksmiths from all over Europe meet to display their talents and hold discussions with fellow craftsmen. The quarry is also the setting for an annual jazz festival.