Former American automobile capital, Detroit was disfigured by deindustrialization and the subprime crisis in 2008. Fifteen years later, Motor City attempts to reinvent itself with a well-renovated downtown and museums that showcase the city’s history. Here is an example of a three-day itinerary.
Jour 1
Located on Lake St. Clair in Michigan, Detroit is only the 27th largest city in the United States with a population of 630,000 (2021 estimate). Its urban area, on the other hand, has nearly 3,800,000 people and extends over more than 3,000 km2. An ocean of bitumen not very attractive at first sight. We advise you to start your stay in Downtown at Grand Circus, and go down to the edge of the Detroit River (which flows into the Sainte-Claire). Downtown Detroit is brand new, with upscale shopping, an ice rink in winter to Campus Martius Park and small pedestrian streets like The BELTknown for its wall graffiti and art galleries.
For the lunch break, head to Greektown still in Downtown which, as its name suggests, is the city’s Greek quarter with its many bars and restaurants. We recommend the Golden Fleece Restaurant (525 Monroe St) for a nice plate of gyros ($16) and a baklava for dessert.
Then push until Heart Plaza, a large esplanade at the foot of the great towers of the business center, famous for its concerts and music festivals in summer. The impressive headquarters of General Motors (300 Renaissance Dr W) is just a few steps away. You can access the lobby and enjoy the showroom which presents many old and recent models of the brand’s cars. Continue on the riverwalk on the banks of the Detroit River, which overlooks the city of Windsor in Canada, visible just opposite.
To end the day in the green and enjoy an unforgettable sunset, get back in your car for Belle Isle, a 4km2 island on the Detroit River where you will find a zoo, an aquarium and a botanical garden. The best place to watch the sun disappear behind the city is at Sunset Point.
Jour 2
Ford’s headquarters are in nearby Dearborn, where a great museum is dedicated to its founder Henry Ford (20900 Oakwood Blvd). It presents the automotive history of the city but also the American innovations that have marked the country and the world. We advise you to spend the whole morning there because there are so many things to do and see. You will find there in particular the Model T, one of the first models of car distributed in mass at the beginning of the last century, the replica of the limousine in which the former president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and a whole slew of old vehicles dedicated to agriculture. The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation also looks back on the development of the train, fast food and electricity. The museum also offers many activities (car racing simulator, film screenings, paper plane manufacturing workshop).
Then stop for lunch in Corktown, a rehabilitated former industrial district of Detroit that has become the haunt of hipsters. The best burgers in town can be tasted at Mercury Burger & Bar (2163 Michigan Ave). Take advantage of being here to browse the local shops in the followingnoon, such as thrift stores Mama Coo’s Boutique (1701 Trumbull) et Eldorado General Store (1700 Michigan Ave).
End your evening with a game of Detroit Pistons, the local NBA team, where French leader Killian Hayes (21) plays. If the franchise is not performing very well this season, it is playing in a brand new 20,000-seat hall a stone’s throw from Downtown, the Little Caesars Arena (2645 Woodward Ave).
Jour 3
It’s not just the automobile in Detroit. Motor City is also the birthplace of Motown, a style of music at the crossroads of pop and soul, which has become a famous label that has produced artists like Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye. THE Motown Museum (Berry Gordy Jr. Boulevard, 2648 W. Grand Blvd), which reopened on February 22 following several months of renovation, traces more than 60 years of Mowtown history.
Don’t leave Detroit without being passed by Michigan Central Station (2001 15th St). This stately, beaux-arts style former train station alone encapsulates Detroit’s complicated history. It closed its doors in 1988 before being bought and renovated, then finally sold to the Ford Motor Company in 2018, which is in the process of setting up part of its activities there and converting the rest into restaurants and shops for the large audience. The partial reopening of the place should begin this summer.
Detroit is also known -like Chicago- for its pizza. End your trip with a stop at Buddy’s Pizza (Madison Building, 1565 Broadway St), the restaurant that invented the recipe in 1946, and which now has several establishments. There Detroit-style Pizza has the particularity of being thick and square in shape, because it is baked in steel molds originally used by the automotive industry.
