Saint-Étienne made France's guns, bicycles and ribbons, and dug its coal from under its own streets. Sorbiers lies just north-east of the city, in the Jarez valley, where the industrial past gives way to green hills and small farms. The Monts du Lyonnais rise to the north, the Pilat to the south, and the city sprawls in the valley between.
The mining heritage is everywhere. The Puits Couriot, a former coal mine in the city, is now a museum, with the headframe and the slag heaps still standing. The Manufrance company, which made guns and bicycles and sold them through a famous catalogue, was a symbol of the city for a century. And the football club, AS Saint-Étienne, plays at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, known as the Chaudron, the cauldron, for its passionate atmosphere.
Swimming nearby is limited. South of the city, the Furan valley holds the Gouffre d'Enfer dam, one of the first large masonry dams in France, built in the nineteenth century to supply water to the city, but swimming is not allowed. Further afield, the Loire gorges and lakes offer options, and the municipal pools are a reliable choice.
The riding around Saint-Étienne is far better than its grimy reputation suggests. The Col de la République, on the old road to Bourg-Argental, was the first mountain pass ever climbed in the Tour de France, in 1903, and it remains a fine, steady climb through pine forest. Beyond it the Pilat opens up a whole network of smaller roads, with tight bends, steep ramps and sudden views east over the Rhône valley to the Alps. North of Sorbiers, the lanes into the Monts du Lyonnais are quieter still, threading through hamlets and pasture on surfaces that range from fresh to frankly agricultural.
Sorbiers and its neighbour La Talaudière cover fuel and shopping without fuss. If you go into the city, try a plate of râpée, the local potato pancake, or a bowl of the creamy, nutty Fourme cheese from the Forez hills, and remember that people here are proud, funny and rarely impressed by anything from Lyon.