On the skyline from Fourvière, you'll
see a gleaming cylinder with a pointed
top - a tower that belongs to Lyon's
home-grown Crédit Lyonnais bank - and
other Manhattanish protuberances around
it. This is
La Part-Dieu , a
business-culture-commerce conglomerate
including one of the biggest public
libraries outside Paris, a mammoth
concert hall and a shopping centre said
to be the largest in Europe (Mº Part-Dieu).
On the corner of rue Garibaldi and cours
Lafayette in front of these less than
homely structures are the
main market
halls of Lyon.
For a break from city buildings head
north to the Parc de la Tête d'Or
(bus #4 from Part-Dieu or métro to
Masséna, then walk up rue Masséna),
where there are ponds and rose gardens,
botanical gardens, a small zoo and lots
of amusements for kids. It's overlooked
by the bristling antennae of the
international headquarters of Interpol,
part of a new Cité Internationale
, which also includes a new Musée
d'Art Contemporain , at 81 Cité
Internationale, quai Charles-de-Gaulle (Wed-Sun
noon-7pm; www.moca -lyon.org ;
25F/¬3.81; bus #4, stop "Musée d'Art
Contemporain"). The museum owns the
largest public collection of
installation art in the world, hosts
excellent temporary exhibitions and is
also the one of the homes of the Lyon
art biennial
. Designed by Renzo Piano, it is a
curious-looking structure with a 1930s
Neoclassical facade on the park side and
a pink concrete box tacked onto the
river side. The colour echoes the
adjacent Palais des Congrès
conference centre, whose front is masked
by a glass screen curving up over the
roof, reminiscent of Jean Nouvel's
Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. There
are some screens, catwalks and
companionways: the features that have
become part of the currency of
architectural language since the
Pompidou Centre first shocked the world.
But it looks good, and will look better
when the area around it ceases to
resemble a building site. To the east,
dividing the park and the university, is
boulevard de Stalingrad, where antique-fanciers
can browse in the Cité des
Antiquaires arcades at no. 117 (Thurs,
Sat & Sun 9.30am-12.30pm & 2.30-7pm;
summer closed Sun afternoon).
In Villeurbanne, not far to the east
of Part-Dieu, is a second Musée d'Art
Contemporain , 11 rue Dr-Dolard (June-Sept
Wed 1-8pm, Thurs-Sun 1-7pm; rest of year
Wed-Sun 1-6pm; 25F/¬3.80; bus #1, stop "Nouveau
Musée"), where thought-provoking and
engaging exhibitions by contemporary
artists question the function of art and
architecture and their relation to
society. It's also worth looking out for
exhibitions at Villeurbanne's Maison
du Livre de l'Image et du Son , to
the east on avenue Émile-Zola (Mº
Flachet), which might feature anything
from medieval illuminations to CD-ROMs.
Further south, on the edge of the 8e
arrondissement , is the
Institut Lumière , 25 rue du
Premier-Film (Mon-Fri 9.30am-12.30pm,
Sat & Sun 2-6pm; 25F/¬3.81; Mº
Monplaisir/Lumière). The building was
the home of Antoine Lumière, father of
Auguste and Louis, who made the first
films, and the exhibits feature early
magic lanterns and the cameras used by
the brothers, along with various art
photographs. The Institut also hosts
various film festivals.
Right down in the south of the city,
in the Gerland quartier (7e), is
a newly developed area with a marina and
a park on the Rhône's east bank, which
provides an illusion of nature around
the mirrored Institut Pasteur and the
thrusting wings and arches of the École
Normale Supérieure. Across the bridge
from the southern tip of the Presqu'île,
just off place Antonin Perrin squats the
massive Tony Garnier Hall (Mº
Debourg), whose 17,000 cubic metres is
completely free of roof-supporting
columns. Its walls graced with
contemporary murals, it is now the main
host to Lyon's art biennial - a major
European show of new art convened here
every other year (July-Sept in odd-numbered
years).
