A wide road cuts through Lyon. It’s Rue Professeur Guérin. This isn’t just any street. It’s a thoroughfare steeped in history and buzzing with modern life.
Rue Professeur Guérin connects Rue Pierre Audry and Rue Michel Berthet to Rue Sidoine Apollinaire. It runs along the base of the Saint Just hill. A ramp leads to the highway and the Fourvière tunnel. This tunnel connects to Perrache and Marseille.
The street serves the Gorge de Loup bus station. Buses use a bridge to bypass the station. Another bridge connects them to the expressway leading to Tassin. The roadway is exceptionally wide. It has central dividers. There are two lanes for buses and two for cars.
A staircase climbs to the Vallonnière housing project. This project overlooks the entire area. To the north breathtaking views stretch across the Vaise plain. The golden hills of the Monts d’Or rise in the distance.
On the north side a concrete wall supports a steeply sloping garden. A massive housing block stands there. Its red and orange curves soften its imposing size. On the south side four bus shelters attract crowds. Passengers head west towards Lyon’s suburbs each evening. Nothing else is built on this side. Railway lines run below. A gate leads to community gardens.
The street honors Camille Guérin. He was born in Poitiers on December 22 1872 and died in Paris on June 9 1961. Guérin’s work on vaccines is celebrated here particularly the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis. He developed this vaccine in 1921. Tuberculosis killed his father and wife. He worked his entire career at the Pasteur Institute in Lille and then Paris.
Surprisingly little connects him to Lyon. However a Camille Guérin plays in the U Gomina street band. The band plays regularly near the Grande Côte. They play music around a barrel organ. The street might also commemorate other Guérin family members. Modeste Guérin was a pioneer in importing peonies from China in the 1830s. Some of his forty peony varieties are visible in the Parc de la Tête d’Or. The botanical garden also features works by Lyon peony growers Félix Crousse and Auguste Dessert. Jean Guérin a surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu published ophthalmology treatises in 1769 and 1777. He pioneered cataract surgery. Rolin Guérin was a tax collector in 1449. He was responsible for maintaining Lyon’s walls and bridges. Pierre de Guérin de Tencin was Archbishop of Lyon at his death in 1758. In 1910 a C Guérin was the general commanding the artillery of Lyon and its forts. Thérèse Guérin a renowned flower painter was born in Lyon in 1861 and died there in 1933. Maurice Guérin born in Angers in 1887 came to Lyon as a CFTC secretary. He participated in the Resistance with the Christian Action. He later became a deputy of the Rhône department. He died in Lyon in 1969.
Before becoming Rue Professeur Guérin it was known as the Vaise to Champvert vicinal road number 11. It’s one of three Rue Guérin streets in Lyon. Archaeological digs revealed traces of Bronze Age settlements. The current street layout appeared on a 1926 map. The Vallonnière housing was built around 1960. The Gorge de Loup bus station was developed later. Rue Professeur Guérin is more than a street. It’s a living testament to the rich tapestry of Lyon’s past and present.