a run around St-Etienne

It's a beautiful sunny day in Saint-Etienne after a week of frozen haziness, so yesterday I was inspired to take my camera with me on a jog around town and take some shots of Sainté's finer points, such as they are.

My run starts out down la Grande Rue, the mostly pedestrian main street of Saint Etienne where the tram lines run. The first landmark of note is the Place Jean Jaurès, dominated by the Cathédrale Saint Charles. To the right of the cathedral is the cinema Gaumont, though I'm more likely to go to Le Méliès on the opposite side of the square since they usually show movies in their original language rather than dubbing them. Once the weather warms back up, the many cafés and restaurants that line the square will put out tables and awnings, but for the cold winter months it's been rather barren.

Off the side of the Place Jean Jaurès is a painfully long staircase that provides this nice if slightly hazy view of the city once you're halfway up. At the top is a gorgeous old cemetery that also provides some lovely vistas of the other side of Saint Etienne (more photos on facebook), though I usually just run back downhill down the street beside it.

Also, I only noticed after getting home and looking at my pictures that the lamps on the lampposts are empty.

Not too far away is the Parc des Expositions, which clumps together all sorts of public interest venues like a bowling alley, public pool, ice skating rink, a huge music venue, and several exhibition halls.

Le Zénith among weeds

An abandoned factory just outside the Parc des Expos that I'm sure would be creepy by night, but is very cool to run through on a sunny day.

No tour of Saint-Etienne would be complete without spotting some dog poop, especially when the presence of the offending item is so charmingly prohibited.

A work at the Cité du Design that's apparently a diving board into concrete, though I bet it has an amazing view of the city.

The Cité du Design is an organization aimed at converting Saint-Etienne into a more welcoming city rather than its current smoggy Industrial Revolution/mining town incarnation. Fittingly, this area used to be a national weapons manufacturing plant.