HOTELS
Novotel Saint-Étienne Centre Gare Châteaucreux
It's impossible for a business traveller arriving at Saint-Etienne Châteaucreux not to spot this representative of the hotel industry. top of the range of the city. Located just opposite the station, the Novotel, along with its more economical cousin the ibis Budget, is part of a building complex that appeared only a few years ago: the Poste-Weiss block. A vermilion-red complex of offices, homes, shops and hotels set in a series of angular buildings designed by architects Emmanuel Combarel and Dominique Marrec.
In addition to its location, in keeping with the design spirit of the city, the hotel is a practical base with 77 rooms, a fitness area and a restaurant. four meeting roomsThe largest can accommodate up to 50 people. Extended in fine weather by a terrace overlooking the station forecourt, its bar-restaurant offers the best of the region, from cheeses and fruit juices to honey and beer, all from small local producers.
5 Cours Antoine Guichard. Internet : all.accor.com E-mail : HB2Q4@accor.com. Tel.: 04 28 04 10 90
Hotel Astoria
The friendly hotel par excellence. Close to the convention centre and the Verrière events centre, as well as the Ecole des Mines, this three-star establishment welcomes just like home business travellers, who make up the vast majority of our clientele. The 33 rooms, all unique, are decorated according to a theme reminiscent of the region and its special features: mines, bicycles, pétanque boules, Le Corbusier and the sources of the Loire.
Revisiting an establishment dating back to the 1970s, the Hotel Astoria is nestled in a green setting, with a third of its rooms having a balcony, and travellers can also relax on the terrace in fine weather. While the hotel does not have a restaurant as such, it does offer travellers dishes prepared by a local caterer using regional produce. This is also true of breakfast, as part of the hotel's responsible approach. The Astoria also has a 42 m² seminar room for residential or training seminars.
62D rue Henri Déchaud. Internet : www.hotel-astoria.fr. E-mail : astoria.saint-etienne@wanadoo.fr . Tel.: 04 77 25 09 56
RESTAURANTS
The Hedonist
Hedonistic but not egotistical, this restaurant likes to please. by pleasing others. This bistronomic restaurant, which has been run for just over two years by Benoit Brunel, has its own way of interpreting the zero kilometre concept. Located on Place Grenette in the historic centre of Saint-Etienne, the restaurant buys its produce from its immediate neighbours, including some of the city's best food shops, such as Robert's fishmonger, Mons cheese-maker and Cuiz'in sur Cours wine merchant. The result is a short, constantly-changing menu based on local, seasonal produce. It's a cosy place that can be hired out for business meals.
5 place Grenette. Internet : restaurant-lhedoniste.com. E-mail : lhedoniste.restaurant@gmail.com. Tel.: 04 77 90 69 27
The Red Gate House
Close to the congress centre, this restaurant was taken over a year ago, renovated and then relaunched with a menu based on a variety of dishes. contemporary cuisine and seasonal ingredients. The restaurant has 75 covers indoors and a hundred more on the terrace in fine weather, overlooking a bowling green for summer evenings.
2 Rue Virgile. Tel: 04 87 02 15 30
Geoffroy Guichard Brewery
With an abundance of lush greenery, a large, beautiful lawn behind its picture windows, and a menu of grated meats, sarasson and lamb barboton - among other burgers and salads - this is the place to go for a great meal. a walk in Forez. However, this brasserie is not located in the middle of nowhere, but at the epicentre of the region, its beating heart: the stands of the Geoffroy Guichard stadium. Shirts, pennants, a mural in memory of the legendary Les Verts coach Robert Herbin: this restaurant with a view, run by a trio including Jérémy Guichard, a direct descendant of the founder of both the Casino group and the famous football club, plunges straight into the atmosphere of the cauldron. Open for lunch every day, and evenings at weekends except on match days, the restaurant welcomes a large number of professionals who have come as neighbours for lunch or a business meal. But the venue, which is managed separately from the stadium's events programme, also lends itself to seminars and eventsThese range from meetings for 20 people to cocktail parties for 350, and dinners for up to 180 people.
14, rue Paul et Pierre Guichard. Internet : bgg.rest. E-mail : contact@bgg.rest . Tel: 09 73 89 64 84
TOURISM
If you have an hour or two
At the end of the day after a meeting or while waiting to catch the train, business travellers will find in Saint-Etienne a wide choice of experiences and places to visit. For example, relive the hard work of the miners at the Couriot well or the great hours of the Verts at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium museum. To get a clearer idea of the city's industrial past, head for the Musée d'Art et d'Industrie and its collections of weapons, ribbons and bicycles. Pending the opening of the Galerie Nationale du Design in 2026, the Cité du Design, which will be hosting the Biennial until July, shows how the city has turned its past and the former Manufacture d'Armes into a place for the future.
Art Nouveau facades along the Avenue de la Libération, medieval houses around the Place Boivin, the city's historic birthplace, sitting on one of the terraces of the many bars in the Saint-Jacques district, particularly in the Rue des Martyrs-de-Vingré, or pushing on to the Place Jean-Jaurès, the focal point of the city: Saint-Etienne is also a place that can simply be explored. while strolling.
If you have a day
Saint-Etienne lends itself perfectly to bleisure breaks, as a leisurely extension to a business trip, with a packed programme of visits. Lovers of contemporary art can browse the Ceysson & Bénétière gallery or spend time at the exhibitions on offer at MAMC+, which boasts one of the largest collections of modern art in France. Fans of street art can head for Saint-Chamond and the new MAUSA museumThis is a huge industrial hall where urban art is on display over an area of almost 10,000 m². Architecture fans can head to Firminy, 15 km from Saint-Etienne, for a glimpse of one of Le Corbusier's key works, the UNESCO-listed Maison de la Culture, part of a Cité Radieuse that also includes a church, stadium and housing units.
But Saint-Etienne is also green. The Greens of course, but above all the great natureJust a few kilometres away, the Loire gorges and Grangent lake, the Gier valley and the Pilat nature park. Or, a little further afield, the Forez mountains, its characterful villages such as Champdieu, Marols or Montarcher, a diversion to MontbrisonIt was the former prefecture of the Loire before being handed over to Saint-Etienne in the mid-19th century.e Montbrison is one of the most attractive towns in France. For its pretty historic centre and its speciality, the Fourme de Montbrison cheese.
