ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way the two former industrial metropolises have managed to nurture and sustain a post-industrial narrative around the creative city doxa. Moreover, it should allow us to analyse how cities without a strongly recognised cultural capacity have derived advantages in the global competitive context of tourism by following an endogenous path by emphasising their genius loci. Folles Journes gave birth to other Folles Journes in cities throughout the world, whether Tokyo, Lisbon or Bilbao, thus demonstrating Nantes's know-how at the international scale, and promoting the city's prominence at the global scale. Saint-Etienne has attempted to recover from the industrial and demographic crises which deeply affected the city through a project centred on design and on the use of local resources tailored to contemporary needs. Design is perceived as a support of shared territorial values and is deeply anchored in Saint-Etienne's industrial history.
