Living in Gerland, Lyon

Gerland is the southern two thirds of the 7e Arrondissement, a wide flat strip along the right side of the Rhône below the rest of the city. It was industrial by design: the city put its slaughterhouses, gasworks and factories here in the early twentieth century, well away from the centre. The scale it was built at is what you notice first. Blocks are long, streets are wide, and the distance between two useful things is bigger than anywhere else in Lyon.

What it is

An old industrial district that has been turned into a science and sport quarter without being demolished. Tony Garnier's abattoirs went up before the First World War; most of the complex came down in 1975, but the great market hall survived, was listed, and is now the Halle Tony-Garnier, a concert and exhibition space. Garnier also built the Stade de Gerland in 1920, which was the football ground until 2015 and is now the rugby club's home. Around them sit research laboratories and biotech companies, a high-security virology institute, and the École normale supérieure de Lyon, whose campus is the single biggest source of student life in the quarter. The Parc de Gerland runs down the riverbank at the southern end.

Who lives here

Two populations that barely overlap. Students and young researchers, drawn by the ENS, the laboratories and the purpose-built student residences, mostly in small flats and shared rooms. And long-standing working and lower-middle-class households in the older blocks and the post-war estates, many of them families who have been here for generations. Newer flats along the river have added young professionals to the mix. Rents are noticeably lower than in the 6e or on the peninsula, which is the main reason people come.

What it's like during the day

Functional. Laboratory and office workers arrive in the morning, students cross between buildings, and the streets between them are quiet because there are simply fewer of them per square kilometre. The park along the Rhône is the best thing here: long, open, with sports pitches, a rose garden and a continuous path north along the water into the centre. On match days and concert nights the quarter fills up sharply for a few hours and then empties again.

What it's like in the evening

Thin. There are student bars and cheap places to eat around the ENS and the metro stops, and a few restaurants near the stadium, but there is no evening street and no cluster of bars worth walking to. Most people who want a night out get on the metro. The upside is that ordinary residential streets are genuinely quiet, apart from the evenings when the Halle or the stadium has something on and the surrounding streets get busy.

Getting around

Metro line B runs the length of the quarter, with Stade de Gerland-Le LOU and Debourg inside it and Place Jean Jaurès at its northern edge. The thing to know about line B is that it does not go to the Presqu'île: it runs north to Saxe-Gambetta, Part-Dieu and Charpennes, so reaching Bellecour means changing trains. Tram T1 ends at Debourg and runs north across the Rhône on the Pont Raymond-Barre, which carries trams, pedestrians and bicycles but no cars, into Confluence and on to Perrache and Part-Dieu. Tram T6 also ends at Debourg and runs east across the 8e and on to Villeurbanne. Cycling is excellent: flat, wide, with the riverside path as a fast route into the centre. Walking to the centre is not realistic; the stadium end is more than three kilometres from Bellecour.

Eating and shopping

Adequate rather than good. There are supermarkets, bakeries and a scattering of cafés and cheap places to eat along the main streets, and the university canteens carry a lot of the student load. A food market runs on the Place Jean Jaurès at the northern end three mornings a week, which is the best fresh produce in the quarter. What is missing is the dense small-shop layer that older quartiers have. For real shopping people go north to Jean Macé and the Guillotière, both a few minutes away on the metro.

When NOT to pick it

Wrong if you want to walk everywhere, because the distances inside the quarter are long and the centre is a metro ride away. Wrong if you want atmosphere, small streets or a bar downstairs. Wrong if you need to be on the peninsula often, since line B does not go there without a change. It is the right choice if you want more space for your money, a flat run to the river and the park, and a short walk to a laboratory or a lecture hall, and you can accept a quarter built at industrial scale. If you want the same rents with more street life, look north to Jean Macé or the Guillotière; if you want new buildings and water but a shorter trip into town, look across the bridge at Confluence.