Summer specials on stone works at Pierre Actual

Roches de France + CD ROM

69 Euros instead of 130 Euros

A unique 240-page book with 271 reproductions of samples of the main varieties of Stones, Marbles, Granites and other ornamental rocks in France, with information sheets specifying the technical characteristics of the materials: density, porosity, compressive strength, resistance to fastening, speed of sound, resistance to wear. The CD ROM is the digital version of the book. A real tool with an alphabetical search system and by type of materials.

Natural stones, design and construction of roads and public spaces

35 Euros instead of 52 Euros

The C.T.N.C. has piloted the publication of a very complete and educational book on the design and construction of public spaces in stone. Elegance and sustainability are the essential requirements of public spaces and their many transformations to build sustainable cities. In this quest, streets and squares with multiple functions have to be more reliable and more user-friendly. With this new look, natural stone offers many facets of amazing modernity, by its capacity to respond to different challenges and to put itself in perspective with the stakes of the future.

Mediator for marble and funeral in France

The Union of the Public Funeral Pole and the Confederation of Professionals of the Funerary and Marble Industry have chosen to associate themselves in order to make available to the citizens a Mediator of the Funerary Professions, within the framework of the regulation on the mediation of consumption . Alain Bachelier, retired from the OGF group, will be the mediator at the heart of the scheme, presented to the Accreditation Committee of the DGCCRF.

A first in the field of funerals

Through their association, these two federations, public and private, meet on common issues: to secure their members in mediation, by making available the services of the Ombudsman of the Funerary Professions with the creation of a website dedicated, to allow by this site a simple and clearly identified access to the process of mediation in case of dispute, finally, to give the possibility to the non-adherent structures of these two entities to solicit the expertise of the Mediator of the Funeral Professions.

The constitution in association will be signed jointly, in the presence of: - Richard Feret, General Director of the Confederation of Professionals of Funeral and Marble - Michel Marchetti, co-President of the Confederation of Professionals of the Funeral and de la Marbrerie - Patrick Lerognon, President of the Union du Pôle Funéraire Public - Bernard Chaigneau, Vice-President of the Federation of Local Public Enterprises of New Aquitaine - Thierry Durnerin, General Director of the Federation of Local Public Enterprises.

This signature took place on June 29, 2017 at 16:00, 96, rue d'Amsterdam 75009 PARIS

5 sculptors at Crémer à Fratin,

The first symposium of sculptures holds all its promises. To discover.

Since Thursday, August 10, the decor of the marbles Cremer à Fratin (Étalle) is modified with the presence of five stone sculptors who come to unveil their talent. As soon as one crosses the entrance of the courtyard, a vast cloud of dust emanates from one of the hangars of the company. We hear hammer blows interspersed with the noise of discus, and here and there voices rise. Five artists from Belgium and Portugal are working hard. They have fifteen days to turn their block of stone into a work of art.

The site is not occupied solely by the work of stone. Next to it, under an arbor, an exhibition of the works of the five artists takes place.

Manual sculpture is an art

On the first day, each artist presented his preliminary draft. Faced with his block of stone, the artist decides whether to follow his project. A kind of dialogue is formed with the stone. The artist can feel called by a completely different creation. "We must approach the event and respect the theme of living together. Through the work, it is necessary that each one can feel considered, that appears a moment of peace with human dimension. You have to set aside the competition even if it's still a competition, "explains Marc de Winter, a participating sculptor and spokesperson for the symposium. It is a human adventure before anything opposing two veterans for three neophytes.

Concerning the choice of the stone, the sculptors are facing two materials and have to cut. The white stone of Italian origin and the blue stone of Hainaut. The first is more tender, while the second is harder. To each one its tooling and its technique. "Difficult to say what is the easiest. We know that the blue stone gives effects depending on how it was cut, "says Étienne Crémer, patron of the marble factory.

To carry out this event, each candidate has moved with his equipment, while the marble factory makes available to them halls, machines and handling.

On the spot, the agreement between the artists and the staff of the Cremer marble factory is very convivial. This symposium animates the site and the clients of passage are interested in the work of the sculptors. "This activity takes us out of our daily lives, because daily we receive sad people following the dea

To know all about the profession of marble worker of modern times.

"Kuros pearl of mother-of-pearl, Saint-Pons red, royal violet, peach blossom, Skyros ..." This curious vocabulary, as poetic as it is technical, is that of the marble workers when they speak of the colors of this metamorphic rock that has long been exploited in the Saint-Ponais.

So long, that the oldest known uses are votive axes dated from the time of the polished stone or a Gallo-Roman ex-voto dedicated to Dinomogétimar, a divinity of the source of Jaur.

Closer in time, the altar table of the church of the Cathar city of Minerva, consecrated in the year 456, is of Saint-Pons marble. Other places of worship have adopted this precious local material. In total, around twenty altars have been listed, including those of the cathedrals of Rodez and Girona, the abbey church of Cluny, the churches of Capestang and Quarante ...

And of course the abbey church of Saint-Pons created in 936 which, with time, became an imposing cathedral after various transformations. Mineral witness to its original architecture, the northern tympanum carries magnificent bas-reliefs, "The Last Supper and the Crucifixion", are sculpted in marble. A stone that is found in blocks cut for the construction of the present facade, built in the eighteenth century.

After a recent period of sleeping, the extraction of marble has taken over in recent years. It has since been used in luxury hotels of the Côtes d'Azur and adopted by the designer Pierre Ganalons. Not to mention that in Saint-Pons-de-Thomières, Languedoc France, you walk on sidewalks ... in marble.

It is the visit of a marble factory, equipped with a digital machining center (robot, flow saw, flat polisher ...), as the antenna of the community tourism office Minervois, Saint-Ponais, Caroux in Haut-Languedoc offers to discover!