Mines Saint-Etienne
Country/city
The Saint-Étienne area is one of the most attractive, vibrant regions in France.
The city of Saint-Etienne is ideally located at the heart of Europe and is easy to access. The specialized L’Étudiant magazine ranks Saint-Etienne as one of the top French student cities (4th of 43) based on five criteria: attractiveness, education, living conditions, jobs and student life.
Saint-Etienne is a metropolis on a human scale, close to the territory with short circuits and local products (“4th best city to live in” according to the Express magazine). The city of Saint-Etienne does indeed provide an exceptional natural and cultural environment.
Located 62 kilometers to the South-West of Lyon, Saint-Étienne is a college town with an industrial tradition. This metropolis on a human scale provides many services to welcome students and help them fit in.
It offers a privileged living environment that will make it easy to build your professional network and develop on a personal level.
Due to its size and public transport network, Saint-Étienne also makes “city living” and access to all its advantages very easy.
It has entered the 21st century as the city of Design – the only French city to have received this UNESCO certification. With its Design Biennale, Saint-Étienne has entered the international stage.
Beyond city living, it also offers direct access to nature: you can enjoy a wonderful change of scene just a 15 minutes’ drive from the city centre, or within jogging or mountain-biking distance for the more athletic among you. The Pilat and the Forez mountains surrounding it form a wonderful green belt – an ideal place for sport and outdoor pursuits, or just a breath of fresh air!
Monthly budget
€ 380
Accomodation
€ 27.50
Transport
Student prices
€ 150-200
Food
€ 300
Other expenses
Clothes, cleaning products, …
€ 70
Entertainment
€ 45
Telephone and Internet
Practical information
Get to Saint-Etienne:
- SNCF (Train, TER, Metro, etc.)
- Rhônexpress (LYS Airport to Lyon)
Get to Saint-Etienne:
Get to Saint-Etienne
The Saint-Étienne area is ideally located in France and Europe and is easy to access.
Arrival by plane to Lyon
Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport (LYS) to Saint-Etienne (Rhônexpress + TER): 1h15
Arrival by plane to Paris
Paris Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG) to Saint-Etienne (Direct train or Train to Lyon Part-Dieu + TER to Saint-Etienne): 2h45
On site
Tramway, bus
The STAS connecting different areas of the city. To use them, you will need either a ticket (10 tickets for €10), or a student subscription for €27.50 (+€5 to purchase the OùRA card).
Bicycle
The Vélivert service (29 stations in the city) is available with or without a subscription (student discounted rate of €10/year).
Accommodations
We have selected two residences to welcome you during your semester in Saint-Etienne: Residence des Arts (. Please find below some information about these two residences.
Please note that we only have 10 places at the “Résidence des Arts” (T1 of 20 m2, 11 rue Gambetta, 42000 Saint-Étienne) and “Résidence Le Littré” (Studio of 19 m2, 32 rue Emile Littré, 42100 Saint Etienne.
If you prefer to book your accommodation alone, we wille provide you a list of private student housing. You can also find a rental apartment by enlisting the services of an agency (this involves additional fees) or looking into private offers through platforms like Lokaviz (the Crous’ housing platform), SeLoger, leboncoin, CRIJ (Centre Régional Information Jeunesse). If you do not want to live alone, look into apartment-sharing : La Carte des Colocs, Appartager.
Good to know! meta4.0 also has a partnership with Erasmus Play!
Erasmus Play is a search engine for student accommodation across Europe. It allows students to quickly and easily compare all available accommodation and book in safety as all the accommodations are 100% verified.
Food
The French usually eat three meals per day. Breakfast is followed by two larger meals, lunch at around 12:30pm and dinner at 8pm. If you have your own kitchen, grocery shopping is very easy in Saint-Étienne, where there are over 250 markets, many corner stores and small farming organizations (AMAPs) that sell local fresh produce.
The prices will, of course, vary depending on what products you buy, but for €5 you can find everything you need to make a meal with fresh produce. Saint-Étienne is brimming with restaurants offering meals at all prices. At midday, meal times are generally shorter, and almost all restaurants offer a “plat du jour” for around 10 euros. In Saint-Etienne, whether you are peckish with many restaurants, bars and pubs… there’s bound to be something you will fancy!
Things to do/see
Saint Etienne was a mining and industrial city but design has become a key area of development and innovation
To date, Saint-Étienne is the only French city that belongs to the UNESCO network of design cities, as an international leader in the field of design. Each International Design Biennale hosts over 200,000 visitors from around the globe.
The citiy of Saint-Étienne boasts many different sports facilities, including swimming pools, ice-skating rinks, stadiums and more, and even more athletic clubs. As a student, you can often get discounts.
Saint-Étienne offers many cultural attractions such as, the Le Corbusier site (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). There are music, theatre, dance and circus festivals all year round. It also has a diverse cultural scene!
With its concert halls, festivals and its brand-new Centre Dramatique National, La Comédie, and its Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, which houses the second-largest collection of contemporary art in France.