Lyon's painted walls: open-air museum Tony Garnier

Access: From Perrache, take tram line T2 (towards Saint-Priest-Bel Air) and get off at the Jet d'Eau-Mendès France stop.
Please note! This walk is not fully signposted.

(S/E) From the tram stop, head east-southeast along the Guillotière Cemetery to quickly reach the intersection of Avenue Berthelot and Boulevard des États-Unis, which is also the intersection of tram lines T2 and T4. You will already notice, on the other side of the intersection, "La Tour de Babel" (The Tower of Babel), which will be easier to see on the way back. Turn right onto Boulevard des États-Unis and continue straight ahead, staying on the right-hand pavement, until you reach the junction with Rue Paul Cazeneuve.

(1) Turn right and walk a few metres to discover "La cité idéale du Québec" (The ideal city of Quebec). Return to the crossroads to cross the street, then follow it again to the right, ignore a street on the left and walk past "Les temps de la cité" (The times of the city). Turn left onto Rue Ludovic Arrachart, then left onto Rue Joseph Chapelle. At this crossroads, you will see "Les années 1900" (The 1900s) and "Une cité industrielle" (An industrial city).

Continue to the next crossroads ("The passenger station" and "Public services") and turn right onto Rue des Serpollières. At the next crossroads (on the left, "Les habitations en commun"), turn right onto Rue Émile Combes. At the T-junction ("L'école" and "L'intérieur des habitations"), turn left onto Rue Ludovic Arrachart. At the next crossroads ("La tour horloge"), turn left onto Rue Théodore Lévigne.

(2) At the next intersection ("Les usines" and "L'hôpital"), turn right at the corner of the park. When you reach Rue Jean Sarrazin, turn left and cross Boulevard des États-Unis (note the large hall on the right where the big Saturday market is held). Continue straight ahead at the next intersection.

At the junction with Rue Rochambeau ("La cité idéale d'Égypte"), turn left. At the crossroads, turn left between "La cité idéale du Mexique" and "La cité idéale de l'Inde". At the next intersection ("La halle Tony Garner" and "L'hôpital Édouart-Herriot"), turn right onto Rue Wakatsuki.

(3) At the junction with Rue Émile Combes ("Le stade de Gerland" and "La cité idéale de Russie"), turn right and go back to "La cité idéale de Côte-d'Ivoire".

(3) Back at the crossroads, turn right onto Rue Wakatsuki. When you reach Rue Joseph Chapelle ("La cité idéale des USA"), turn left and follow the road to Boulevard des États-Unis. Turn right and continue straight ahead. At the crossroads with Rue Villon, note "La cité idéale de Chine" and continue straight ahead.

(4) Just before the crossroads with Avenue Berthelot, turn right towards "La Tour de Babel" (The Tower of Babel) and then right again towards "La Tour de Babel du futur" (The Tower of Babel of the Future) (which bears a striking resemblance to the Musée de la Confluence). Join Avenue Berthelot and follow it to the left until you reach the T2 tram stop, heading towards Perrache (S/E).

Start: Tram line T2 stop at Jet d'Eau-Mendès France.

Transport: From Perrache Tram line T2 (towards Saint-Priest-Bel Air) stop at Jet d'Eau-Mendès France.

Terrain: No difficulties on this urban route.

Alternative: Another walk exists, which has been unpublish because walkers where unhappy that the streets were so dirty, or that certain frescoes had disappeared, or been replaced by others. It's the principle of ephemeral art! If you're interested, follow this link
https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-murs...

Discover more hikes in this area with a description or the Visorando app here

Some photos here

During the interwar period, Édouard Herriot, mayor of Lyon, undertook numerous construction projects. People from the countryside and neighbouring countries came to work in the city, cramming into precarious and unsanitary housing that would be replaced by cheap collective houses made of slag concrete.

The origins of the États-Unis neighbourhood date back to 1917. Édouard Herriot announced the creation of housing for factory workers located between La Guillotière and Vénissieux: these were the first Habitations à Bon Marché (HBM) low-cost housing units. Tony Garnier, an architect who had won the Grand Prix de Rome, was chosen to coordinate this monumental undertaking. Construction began in 1920 and the first residents moved in in July 1933.

Renovated between 1985 and 1997, the working-class neighbourhood of États-Unis saw the birth of an original cultural enhancement experiment: starting in 1988, artists from Citécréation® designed and created monumental paintings on its walls. This marked the birth of the Tony Garnier Museum: a collection of 25 murals, including 19 giant murals based on the works of Tony Garnier: the plans for his Socialist Industrial City developed at the beginning of the century, the Edouard Herriot Hospital, the slaughterhouses (adjacent to the Tony Garnier Market Hall) with the inauguration by Edouard Herriot and Tony Garnier, the Lumière brothers, Jules Courmont and Laurent Bonnevay, the Gerland Stadium, a wall with watercolours by Tony Garnier...

You can also admire six frescoes sponsored by UNESCO, designed by foreign artists, each representing their vision of the ideal city: Ivory Coast, Egypt, the United States, India, Mexico and Russia.

In keeping with the museum's theme, numerous murals have been and will continue to be created in the surrounding area. If you're curious, this is a route that can be adapted over time.

Choose a Saturday for this walk to enjoy the superb multicultural market of the United States.