The Cité de la gastronomie de Lyon closes its doors, victim of Covid-19 - France 24

Lyon (AFP)

The Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie de Lyon, inaugurated in October 2019 and dedicated to the culinary art, closes its doors "definitively", victim of the health crisis of the coronavirus according to its direction.

"Faced with the uncertainty of economic and tourist development, and despite all our efforts to safeguard it, we have made the decision not to reopen the City and to definitively stop its operation," she explains in a communicated.

Already criticized for its entry price and lack of content, this complex housed in the setting of the Grand Hôtel-Dieu, in the hyper center of the capital of gastronomy, had remained closed after the deconfinement.

Directed by Florent Bonnetain and operated by the Spanish group MagmaCultura, the City "faces difficulties precarious in its operation and making it particularly vulnerable to the sudden crisis and its repercussions".

And, "like too many other cultural players in France and in Europe, the City has suffered the heavy impacts caused by the health crisis of the coronavirus", underlines the operator.

Supported by the city and the metropolis, with 2 million euros each, and by sponsorship to the tune of 10.5 million, the City of gastronomy backed by the new Halles de Lyon hoped to receive 300,000 visitors per year.

The City was built around a permanent route, open to the expert as well as the layman, and temporary exhibitions. It presented different ways of conceiving gastronomy around the world, as well as a dive at the table of the emblematic great chefs of Lyon and exhibitions of rare objects, such as the legendary one-ton piano, of the late Paul Bocuse.

The entrance to this place built on four levels on a total surface of 4,000 m2 cost 12 euros and you had to pay double to participate in the tastings offered by the chefs.

"We are convinced that a bright future will emerge for the spaces we are leaving and that new good intentions will emerge to make this City an essential place of gastronomic heritage in Lyon, France and around the world," hopes l operator.

© 2020 AFP