Join Us in France Travel Podcast · Annie Sargent

Is Saint-Étienne France's Most Underrated City? PLUS: Tips for Learning French!

·1 hr 1 min·3 clips

Saint-Étienne began as a demilitarized zone between the Counts of Forêt and Lyonnais.

1. Join Us in France episode 582 focuses on Saint-Étienne, a French city that Annie Sargent and Brooke Kos-Cunningham describe as overlooked by many visitors. 2. Annie Sargent hosts the show, and Brooke Kos-Cunningham appears as a French professor and frequent France traveler whose familiarity with French-language sources shapes the discussion. 3. The episode asks whether Saint-Étienne is France’s most underrated city, especially for travelers who want a more local experience than Paris, Bordeaux, or Saint-Tropez. 4. Brooke says she usually plans France trips around friends, French tourism offices, and Google Maps, then backs that up with paper maps when she needs a wider view. 5. She recommends using laptops for trip research because phones make it hard to judge distances, directions, and nearby villages. 6. Brooke also points listeners toward French-speaking social media accounts and hashtags for les villes méconnues and les incontournables. 7. The French-learning segment stresses social codes such as bonjour, bonsoir, and forms of politesse when speaking with people in France. 8. Brooke says she has been speaking French for about 20 years and still benefits from mistakes, group chats, tutors, and one-to-one practice. 9. She mentions L’Alliance Française, Radio France, France Info, and other authentic materials as tools for building fluency. 10. Brooke describes Saint-Étienne as accessible by train from Paris and Lyon, with a setting between the Livre d’Oie Forêt and Parc du Pilon. 11. She calls it a working-class city with an industrial past, but says the smokestacks and heavy pollution are largely gone. 12. Brooke points out that Saint-Étienne is now the cheapest city to rent in among large French cities. 13. She says the city center is being revitalized through pedestrian streets and public-space changes. 14. Football history matters too, because Les Verts and L’Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne were a major national force in the 1960s and 1970s. 15. Brooke says the city’s accent is distinctive enough that some people try to lose it when they move away. 16. Family visits are part of the story, since Annie says she has cousins in Saint-Étienne and Brooke traveled there with her nine-year-old and six-year-old children. 17. The tone is conversational, with Annie and Brooke moving easily between travel advice, language learning, and local history. 18. The format mixes practical planning tips, personal anecdotes, and specific site recommendations without a scripted tour-guide style. 19. Best for travelers planning France trips, French learners, and city-break visitors. 20. Probably skip if you want only fast-paced news or celebrity travel coverage.

As heard by us

A steady case for Saint-Etienne as an overlooked, usable trip.

Saint-Etienne comes across as a city most travelers would miss if they did not go looking for it. The episode ties together coal mining, bicycles, metalworking, ribbons, and design, then brings that history down to earth with museums kids can enjoy, easy nature breaks, local…

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Why you'd press play

You want a less obvious French city that still gives you museums, local food, and easy nature breaks.

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