Top 10 Things to do in Saint-Etienne


 

Saint-Etienne is a city in the East-Central part of France. It has a manufacturing and mining history.  Apart from the industrial past and mine museum. Saint-Etienne is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

Saint-Etienne is home to some of the notable people such as; composer extraordinaire Jules Massnet, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aristide Briand, and the inventor of contemporary architecture Le Corbusier, whose collection  of buildings in the city is the largest anywhere in Europe.

Saint-Etienne has a number of fun activities that can be enjoyed by a tourist. Always moving, Saint-Etienne offers great cultural events, sports, and festivals throughout the year.

The International Design Biennial, a major forward-thinking event that is open to all, showcases both creative design and a living laboratory.

Here are some top 10 activities that you can do while in Saint-Etienne.

1. The Mine Museum Tour

Saint-Etienne Mine Museum

By Daniel VILLAFRUELA Wikimedia

For anyone interested in Saint Etienne’s mining history, the Parc-Musée de la Mine is an absolute place to visit. The Couriot pit, where the main exhibits are, is recognized as a historical monument for being the largest and most well-preserved coal mine in the Saint Etienne basin.

Visitors are able to trace the footsteps of the miners who worked here. They are also able to see the gigantic washbasin where workers mingled and changed while at the mine and marvel at the mammoth extraction machine that heaved and smoked until it was finally shut down in 1973.

In a reconstructed gallery, they further explain in detail the draining work of coal-mining.

Each of the spaces in Parc-Musée de la Mine, have been carefully maintained to give visitors an authentic foray into the miner’s lives.

2. Visit a cultural Heritage for an out-of-town Adventure: Heritage Le Corbusier in Firminy

Maison de la Culture is part of a larger complex of buildings by the Swiss-born French architect, called Firminy Vert. It was built on an artificial hill in a former stone quarry and completed in 1965.

Learn about the famous architect who was also involved with the planning of the nearby town of Saint-Etienne by building a stadium, a House of Culture, housing, and a church that was completed in 2006.

It is a 20-minute drive out of Saint-Etienne. Admirers of the architect will be acquainted with his distinctive style of manipulating geometric forms and symbiosis with nature.

Lights and colours interchange with the unorthodox spatial dimensions and Le Corbusier’s choice of steel and concrete reflects the old mining and industrial background of Firminy.

3. Musée d’Art et d’Industrie

To quickly understand and get a glimpse of the old industrial town of Saint-Etienne, a visit to the museum will bring you up-to-date with the city’s culture and history.

Saint-Étienne started manufacturing bicycle on a large scale in the 1800s. Among the industrial exhibits, one will get to see the enormously designed bicycles on display in the museum.

One can also take notice of the mechanical evolution of the bicycle with the help of some old-fashioned prototypes.

Saint-Etienne was known for years as the city of weapon-making. There are 350 guns on display, drawn from a collection of more than 3,000 which is the largest outside Paris.

4. Experience Modern Art at the Modern Art Museum

This municipal museum is dedicated to modern and contemporary art of the 20th and 21st centuries, including monumental murals by Raoul Dufy and Henri Matisse.

It hosts more than 13,000 pieces of modern and contemporary art from both local and international artists.

Some notable pieces by the likes of Monet, Picasso, Hausmann and Magnelli have also graced the walls of the museum.

In fact, the Musée d’art moderne boasts one of the largest collections of its type in France.

5. Explore Saint-Etienne’s Innovations at the Planetarium

The Saint-Etienne Planetarium was built in 1993 as part of a major rehabilitation project for the former Manufrance site (Manufacture Francaise d’Armes et Cycles de St. Etienne).

The Planetarium always showcases Saint-Etienne innovations in technical and technological know-how.  It has an extensive database that allows it to project hundreds of thousands of galaxies in all its scope onto its dome.

It is appreciated and recognized by the public and other planetariums for the quality of its animations and the films it produces.

6. Museum of the Greens

A visit to this museum will introduce you to the AS Saint-Étienne (ASSE), a football team with a serious genealogy.

Les Verts are always in the top half of Ligue 1 and back in the 60s and 70s, they were the team to beat. They bagged nine league titles in 18 years and just missed out on a European Champions Cup in 1976.

In these stylish galleries, one can look through trophies, accounts about ASSE’s celebrated players in the 1970s.

Get the inside story on the 1976 final at Hampden Park, where the team got heroes’ welcomes on the Champs-Élysées despite finishing as runners-up.

7. Spend some time at the Pilat Regional Natural Park

Pilat Regional Natural Park is the place for nature and open space lovers who will appreciate some green scenery after all that concrete and steel shows.

The park can be found right on the border of Saint Etienne.

The vast park is a safe haven to a diversity of flora and fauna, which thrives under the Mediterranean, continental and oceanic climates that come together at Pilat’s unique coordinates.

Its wide-ranging landscapes, from rolling meadows to well-groomed covered hillsides, give bikers and hikers plenty of paths to choose from.

8. Spend  the Day in an Ancient Village: Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez Village

By Daniel Villafruela Wikimedia

There are 47 member communes in Saint-Etienne, one worth a visit is Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez in the Loire department.

The compound dates back to the 13th-century and is special in that it was once a Carthusian Monastery. This charterhouse turned village is the only one of its kind in France!

Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez’s organization as one of the country’s most enchanting villages is self-evident.

There is a grand stone doorway guarded by two towers leads into the two main courtyards. Brown-stone structures untouched in the passing centuries, and living quarters with their original furnishings offer tourists a rare insight into life under the Carthusian order.

Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez is a 40-minute drive away from Saint Etienne, making it an ideal destination for a day trip.

9. Enjoy a delicious meal at La Fabuleuse Cantine

La Fabuleuse Cantine https://lafabuleusecantine.fr/

This gem is found in a converted warehouse just behind the Cité du Design.

The creative space features a changing menu of organic market-fresh fare that changes every day.

The selection is limited (just one entrée, main and dessert) per day, but the dishes are well-executed, and it’s an easy-going favourite among students.

10. Visit the Cite Du Design (City of Design)

Cite du Design- By Daniel VILLAFRUELA Wikimedia

To get to this exhibition, take tram T1 or T2 to the Cité du Design and stop for an exciting art-filled day, visit the cite du design to explore the temporary design exhibitions and take a look around the futuristic greenhouse.

In there, find out about the Biennale Internationale Design fair and peruse diverse, habitually changing exhibitions at the Cité du Design, in a luminous glass-and-steel building.

 

 

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