If you are something of a gourmet and love anything to do with gastronomy, in two years’ time, the only reason you’ll have for going to Lyon will be to feast at its famous ‘bouchon’ restaurants and spend your Sunday wandering along the banks of the Rhône in search of the best delicacies stallholders have to offer to their foodie customers.

This is all because 2018 is the year that Lyon will officially be launched as an International City of Gastronomy. The project was first presented last April and was developed by a committee presided over by chef Régis Marcon. What does it aim to do? To examine how gastronomy plays an integral part in the world today and will in the future, with food and health as the guiding thread. The site will host exhibitions, cultural events, venues for discovery and demonstrations, a hotel, restaurants and shops, conveying a ‘modern vision of gastronomy’.

This city for food lovers will be created in the Grand Hôtel-Dieu, a former hospital declared a historic monument in November 2011. It will cover 3823 m² between the Rhône and Place Bellecour. The project is budgeted at 19 million euros. The public authorities will cover one third of this investment, and private funds the remaining two thirds.