Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering or bedding less than one centimeter in thickness, called fissility. Mudstones, on the other hand, are similar in composition but do not show the fissility.
Salers (French pronunciation: [saˈlɛʁ], Occitan: Salèrn) is a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France.
It is famous for the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) cheeses Cantal and Salers. It is also famous for the Salers breed of cattle that originated in this commune.
It was pillaged by Rodrigo de Villandrando in the late 1430s, during the final phase of the Hundred Years' War.