Agatha Bertram Travels

Travels with my aunt and some others

  • Remarkable
    • Communities
    • Exploits and Expeditions
    • Food
    • People
  • Africa & Middle East
  • Americas
  • Asia
    • India
    • Japan
    • Vietnam
  • Australia
  • Europe
    • France
  • Useful
    • Books
    • Events
    • Health
    • Travel
  • About
    • AKA Agatha Bertram
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy

Saint Etienne – Urban But in a Good Way

March 18, 2016 by AggieB 7 Comments

When I first came to Saint Etienne to stay, because of meeting a French man reasons I cried.  Of all the places in France – the picturesque villages, the chic cities, the old buildings – at first glance Saint Etienne has none of this. I lived in a small apartment above a main road next to a train line.

It is a small post-industrial city about one hour south west of Lyon in the centre of France. In the past it was famous for the manufacture of guns, bicycles and ribbons and coal mining. All these industries have declined to nothing, hence the tag ‘post industrial’.

In 2010 it became ‘Saint Etienne UNESCO Ville du design’ and is host to a design biennale in March every second year.   Other UNESCO ‘Creative City/Design’ cities are Beijing, Bilbao, Buenos Aires, Turin and Berlin, all of which have a notable design culture.

2016 St Etienne CollageI went to the Biennale in 2013. One of the showcase exhibits described designs for the future and there was all sorts of crazy stuff – flying pod cars, multi-purpose household utensils and furniture and ideas about food in the future. There was information about steaks that are being cloned in laboratories, pills that provide all the nutrition that you need and somehow this algae that can in principle be feed straight into your brain, saving on resources that are used for food production.

But I am sidetracked.

Now I like it. There are many little pockets of beauty (6), (8) and I’ve found my people – the boulanger, the boucher, the fruit and veg lady, the markets, the hippy food shop which at first was the only place I could find muesli, the cave and this morning I even found my Italian food specialist.  I loved to visit the Marché de Noël at Christmas (3).

I’ve taken pictures in all seasons. The Hotel de Ville (1), the renovated Cité du design itself (5) – built on the site of an impressively large gun factory, I’ve been yarn bomb spotting (4), and tracked down as much street art as I can (2), including the art project – Le Mur de St Etienne(7). I’ve also done a little bit of exploring in the areas around St Etienne – Chalmazel and Montbrison (9) primarily.  Chalmazel has a mediaeval chateau dating from 1230 where you can stay, and a small ski resort; Montbrison has the famous market where I buy my cheese.

There is also a Ligue 1 football team who’s predominant colour is green, and who play at the world class Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.   With EURO 2016 imminent and one or two games being played here, the City has gone football mad.   Sadly I missed out on tickets because I was away when they went on sale.

Maybe its just me, but I like a bit of urban mixed in with the picturesque. It shows that there is work going on, and the town is evolving.

See what you think.

Eateries

There are many, here are some suggestions.

Bistrot du Boucher – Place Jean Juarez, opp the cinema :  As the name suggests it has a menu similar to the ‘Bouchons’ in Lyon – a lot of meat, and country style French cuisine.

La Platine – Cite du design :  located at the Cite du Design, open for lunch only except Thursday evenings.

Table du 10 – Bistrot Gourmand : more modern menu, tucked away behind La Drogerie on Rue des Fosses

Rue des martyrs de vingré – a cobbled street in the centre of the city with plenty of bars and cafes.

Transport

If you have a car then everything is easy. It is a small city and there is plenty of parking. If you arrive at Chateaucreux railway station you can easily catch the T2 or T3 tram outside and get off at the Peuple Liberation stop. That is more or less the centre of most things and you can walk from there – except the first two restaurants mentioned above.   Both of those are easily accessible from Jean Juarez and Cite du design stops respectively.

Museums

The two best known museums are :

Musée d’art Moderne – which has some great exhibitions

Musée d’Art et d’Industrie – incorporates a permanent exhibition of local industry and temporary displays.

IMG_3941

Links – other posts relating Saint Etienne

  • A cheese buying morning expedition to nearby Montbrison – link.
  • EURO2016 Football – Love from Saint Etienne – link
  • ‘Les Yarn Bombers’ of Saint Etienne – link

This blog was updated on 11 July 2016.

If you liked this blog, don’t forget to recommend it to your friends and / or subscribe to the Agatha Bertram’s enewsletter.  Enewsletters are sent once every two months with blogging highlights that you may have missed.

You can also keep up to date on Instagram and Facebook – links below.

If you’ve come across from the Lou Messugo’s  #AllAboutFrance blog linkup you can get back here.

  • Tweet
  • Share 0
  • Reddit
  • +1
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn 0

Filed Under: Europe, France, St Etienne

Comments

  1. Tanja (the Red phone box travels) says

    June 4, 2016 at 4:34 pm

    it looks interesting to me:) #allaboutfrance

    Reply
    • AggieB says

      June 4, 2016 at 5:02 pm

      Thanks Tanja, yes I like it now 🙂

      Reply
  2. Phoebe says

    June 6, 2016 at 12:56 pm

    As long as there’s some beauty among the post-industrialist buildings then I like places like this too. It’s good to see St Etienne is redefining itself with design, the yearn bombing is so cool. Does it also have edgy street art, like Marseille?

    Reply
    • AggieB says

      June 7, 2016 at 2:20 pm

      Yes, there is some cool street art. There is ‘Le Mur’ which is a wall where the mural changes each month, and just in the last couple of weeks there is a huge mural commemorating EURO2016. Will get a pic and Instagram it. Thanks for commenting 🙂

      Reply
  3. Sarah Mc says

    June 15, 2016 at 6:51 pm

    I studied in Le Puy En Velay in high school with an exchange. It was wonderful. I love the area. I remember taking the TGV to St. Etienne then boarding the old commuter train over to Le Puy. I highly recommend visiting that area. But I thought St. Etienne was very nice and enjoyed our excursions there.

    Reply
    • AggieB says

      June 16, 2016 at 8:23 am

      Hi Sarah, wow! You have a close connection. I havn’t been out much to the surrounding towns or areas, but I’d really like to. I’ve read about some great hikes. I like Saint Etienne as well now, but it took a while to get to know the place.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Le Corbusier – Architect and Urban Planner says:
    July 27, 2016 at 2:31 pm

    […] by Charles Jencks, 6 May 2013 Agatha Bertram / Saint Etienne –  more information about Saint Etienne and surrounds Agatha Bertram – Why I went to my 30th Birthday dressed as a railway […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe to receive periodic wraps of the most popular posts.

Search

Thought for today

Fact 1: The state changed its name in 2000, and caused a lot of bitterness because of the amount of stationery that had to be changed.  Uttarakhand was formerly known as Uttaranchal.

Dehradun, May 2019

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

#Aggiebtravels

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No connected account.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to connect an account.

#allaboutfrance

Lou Messugo

Affiliates

Web Hosting

Categories

Africa & Middle East Americas Asia Australia Books Communities Equipment Europe Events Exploits and Expeditions Food France General Health India India Japan Japan Markets Movies Oman People Remarkable Snapshots St Etienne Travel Uncategorised Useful Vietnam

Archives

  • July 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • November 2018 (1)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (1)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (2)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • May 2017 (2)
  • April 2017 (1)
  • March 2017 (2)
  • February 2017 (2)
  • January 2017 (1)
  • November 2016 (2)
  • October 2016 (1)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (2)
  • July 2016 (4)
  • June 2016 (3)
  • May 2016 (2)
  • April 2016 (2)
  • March 2016 (3)
  • February 2016 (3)
  • January 2016 (2)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • October 2015 (1)
  • September 2015 (1)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • July 2015 (5)
  • June 2015 (3)
  • April 2015 (2)
  • March 2015 (5)
2016 03 bike_white

Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions

All content, layouts, designs, and graphics are my own unless otherwise noted. Logo and Illustrations by Ignacio Brito
2016 03 suitcase_white

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This site uses cookies: Find out more.