Every design for Bron

Bron sits right against the eastern side of Lyon, on a low plateau that lifts it a few dozen metres above the old floodplain of the Rhône. In the days when the river regularly spilled out of its bed, that small rise made this a sensible place to settle, east of the river and of the old capital of the Gauls.

Ask people from Bron what they remember and the answers tend to come in green: the long lawns of the Parc de Parilly, the racecourse beside it, a little pond that only holds water part of the year. Students fill the university campus, and a whole district is still called Aviation after the airfield that once lay here.

On the map, look for the Fort de Bron at the commune's highest point: a ring of stone built in the eighteen-seventies as part of Lyon's second belt of forts, now surrounded by streets that simply call it the fort.