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St Etienne, France
St Etienne in France with e-travelguide.info
Welcome To the e-travelguide to Hotels, guest houses and attractions in St Etienne.
Make the most of your time in St Etienne, use the information provided on this web site by clicking on the links above to plan your visit.
Set on the road which connects Toulouse in the south-west of France to Lyon in the east, St Etienne is to be found in the Rhone Alpes region of the country on the Massif Central. Regional giant Lyon is to be found a short distance to the north-east while Grenoble is situated a little further away to the south-east. The city has something of a reputation for accepting newcomers and new ideas and is a particularly green part of the country.
There are some 175,000 inhabitants who reside in St Etienne who are known as Stephanois thanks to the French equivalent of Etienne. The city is home to a variety of historic buildings and tours can be given if required. Visitors can make their way up to Guizay Hill where they will inevitably experience excellent views of the settlement below.
Seen as an accepting haven for new ideas, St Etienne is thought to be the birthplace of the sewing machine and the first French city to adopt a railway, which, at the time, was took horse-drawn trams. Intriguingly it is home to two stairless houses; the builder hated stairs and so built cylindrical houses with slopes to help residents reach the next level. It is also worth noting that St Etienne was one of the few French cities to retain its tram system when most others were scraping theirs during the 20th century. Other cities gradually re-introduced theirs when they realised the value of the systems.
St Etienne’s past is largely based around weapons and other industries; however, it has still managed to grow as a tourist destination in recent years. Its reputation as an arms production centre was such that the city was renamed Armeville after the French Revolution. It later transformed into a centre for coal mining and then bicycle production. Despite a lack of development before the 19th century it grew massively in size, from 33,000 in 1832 to 110,000 by the year 1880. In 1990 St Etienne became host to the Massenet Festival which is held every other year as the birthplace of the composer.
Since the 15th century the Place du Peuple Square has acted as a good social gathering place for the people of St Etienne; it is home to cafes, boutiques and open markets. The state-of-the-art planetarium, the 14th century castle and the cathedral offer other opportunities to experience some culture and enjoy the setting. There are also several museums, while the Rhino Jazz Festival takes place each October.