Living in Grange Blanche, Lyon

Grange Blanche is what grew around a crossroads and a hospital at the southern edge of the 3e Arrondissement, where it meets the 8e. Almost everything about it follows from one decision taken a century ago: to build Lyon's biggest hospital out here on open ground, and then to put the medical, dental and pharmacy faculties next to it. If you are going to work or study in health, this is the address that saves you an hour a day. If you are not, it is a fairly ordinary eastern quarter with an unusually good metro.

What it is

A crossroads, a metro station and a medical city. The Hôpital Édouard Herriot, built between 1913 and 1933 to a design by Tony Garnier, is not a tower but a park of separate pavilions linked by two and a half kilometres of underground galleries, and it is listed for its architecture as well as used as a hospital. Across the avenue Rockefeller sit the university buildings of the health campus, with the dental and medicine faculties a short walk further south-east and a military hospital beyond them. Around that core the streets are ordinary: five and six storey blocks from the interwar and post-war decades, a few older houses, shops along the main axes.

Who lives here

Anyone whose life runs through the hospitals. Medical, nursing, dental and pharmacy students in shared flats and studios, junior doctors, nurses and technicians working shifts, researchers. Alongside them a settled residential population of families and older people in the flats away from the main roads, and a slow drift of young professionals attracted by the metro. The student share means rooms turn over sharply around the academic year and much less at other times.

What it's like during the day

Busy in waves. Hospital shifts and lecture timetables set the rhythm, so the pavements and the cafés fill at particular hours and are half empty in between. There is constant movement around the metro and the bus terminus. The hospital grounds themselves, being pavilions in gardens, are pleasant to walk through, which is unusual. Away from the crossroads the streets are quiet and residential, and there are small squares and courtyards that visitors never see.

What it's like in the evening

Subdued. Bars and cheap restaurants near the station and the faculties keep student hours, and the rest of the quarter closes early. Emergency traffic and ambulances are part of the soundscape near the hospital, which is worth thinking about if you sleep lightly and are looking at a flat on the avenue. There is no nightlife destination here; people take the metro west.

Getting around

Better than the location suggests. Metro line D calls at Grange Blanche and runs straight through the city to Bellecour in six stops, Vieux Lyon in seven and out to Vaise, with no change needed for any of them. Tram T2 crosses here on its way from Perrache and Jean Macé out to Bron and Saint-Priest, and tram T5 runs east towards the exhibition centre. On top of that the square is a bus terminus for a large slice of the eastern suburbs, including a direct service to Perrache, which makes it one of the easiest places in Lyon to reach from outside the city. Flat ground, so cycling works, though the main roads are heavy.

Eating and shopping

Practical. Bakeries, chemists, small supermarkets and a good number of cheap places to eat, most of them shaped by the hospital and student trade rather than by residents. There is no street market inside the quarter, which is the main gap: the nearest good ones are at Monplaisir to the south-west and in the 3e to the north. For anything larger, Part-Dieu is a short bus or bike ride away, and the food shops of Monplaisir are two metro stops.

When NOT to pick it

Wrong if you want charm or a lively street, because the quarter is organised around institutions and the architecture is plain. Wrong if ambulance sirens or a big road under the window will keep you awake, and near the hospital that is a real risk. Wrong if you want a market and independent food shops on your doorstep. It is the right choice if you work or study at the hospitals or the faculties, or if you simply want a direct metro line into the whole city at a rent well below the centre and are indifferent to atmosphere. If you want more life and shops for a similar price, look south-west to Monplaisir; if you want quiet and greenery instead, look north-east to Montchat, which starts a kilometre away.