French city Lyon to be rebuilt in Dubai

FRENCH CULTURE: Dubai plans to recreate the city of Lyon, pictured, in the emirate. (Getty Images)

After Abu Dhabi's deal for its own Louvre museum, Dubai is also going for the French touch with plans to build its version of Lyon, complete with cafés, cinemas and schools, according to Lyon officials.

Due to be completed by 2012, the project is the brainchild of a Dubai entrepreneur who fell in love with Lyon, one of the France's three biggest cities, after travelling there as part of plans for a French-language university in Dubai in partnership with Lyon-2 university.

Buti Saeed Al Gandhi, who heads investment capital firm Emivest, is expected to sign a draft accord next week between the French city and Dubai.

He wants to extend the university project into a huge district named Lyon-Dubai City that will be graced with public squares, restaurants, outdoor cafés and museums, and play host to the same gastronomic, cultural, sporting and economic institutions found in the French urban hub.

"We're not going to just copy the buildings and make a type of Lyon decor, but reinstitute the city's atmosphere with boutiques and cultural places in the heart of the city, transport, a social mix, streets and lanes," said urban specialist Jean-Paul Lebas, who is working on the project.

"The city will be organised on European lines so that in a bistrot there you will find the same atmosphere as in a bistrot in Lyon," he added.

Thierry Valentin, deputy president of Lyon-2 University, said the new city, which will be about the size of the Latin Quarter in Paris, would be "a small city with the accent on the best of French culture, and particularly Lyon culture".

Besides housing, offices and hotels, Lyon-Dubai City will house a hotel school run by famed chef Paul Bocuse's institute, a French-language university offering masters in fashion, international law and economics, subsidiaries of Lyon's main museums, a cinematheque and a football training centre run by the Olympique Lyonnais.

The 300- to 400-hectare scheme, estimated at 500 million euros ($740 million), will be located either in an urban area near the Burj Dubai tower or in the desert near the emirate's planned second international airport.

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READERS' COMMENTS

lyon-dubai city
Posted by miral, dubai, UAE on Sunday 10 February 2008 at 11:44 UAE time


What a great idea.
I've just arrived in Dubai after having lived years and years in lyon, went to the uni, taught at the uni and the gastronomic capital of the world would be so much fun to have at our doorstep.
Personally speaking, Duabi desperately needs a french vibe, just to give some balance to the corporate driven populations which dominates the city. Allez y. Commencons!

ookay....
Posted by Hussian Motabagani, Khobar, Saudi Arabia on Monday 7 January 2008 at 15:49 UAE time

I stated in my comment... Why not build a Taj Mahal and you can count on Indian expats to make THAT authentic... The way you edited my comment makes me look like a racist jerk.
I don't appreciate it. If this is how you intend to edit my comments I will stop posting.

Editors Reply: Apologies - editing is only meant to make a comment clearer. We apologise if we changed the meaning. It was not intended.

Lyon to be rebuilt in Dubai: The silliest thing I've ever heard
Posted by Hussian Motabagani, Khobar, Saudi Arabia on Monday 7 January 2008 at 09:47 UAE time

Is Dubai forgetting its congested streets and traffic problems? And if it wants to build an exact replica of Lyon, which hardly has any breathing room and narrow dark streets left behind from the Renaissance period, then how exactly does it plan to dredge rivers in the middle of the desert?
I personnally feel this is a step backwards in Dubai's current 'City of the future' theme.
And why Lyon? Why not Madaen Saleh? And why not Central Park? And can you really count on the Indian expats to make it totally authentic in Dubai?
Plus it will never feel like Lyon. Putting up the angelic statue overlooking Lyon is going to send bad vibes throughout the rest of the Muslim world.
And besides, do we really need to copy the West? Can we not create our own culturally rich romantic little town?

Lyon to be rebuilt in Dubai: Pas une bonne idee
Posted by Lee, Dubai, UAE on Sunday 6 January 2008 at 11:34 UAE time

Even if the Dubai-Lyon city is an exact replica of the original I believe the only way to truly mirror the feel and experience is to have French people living and working there.
Is a French cafe going to feel authentic when it is staffed with expats from Southeast Asia, for example? I don't think architecture and boutiques are going to be enough to re-create the atmosphere of Lyon, do you? I'm not sure this is a good idea for Dubai?

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