France · City break
Lyon City Guide
Between the Rhône and the Saône hides France's largest Renaissance quarter, laced with traboules, the silk weavers' passageways. Above it the Fourvière basilica, below it Roman theatres from Lugdunum, and the market hall of the country's unofficial food capital. Two ready-made day routes begin at Place Bellecour.
🗺️ Open Lyon interactively – map & navigationOur walking tours of Lyon
Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Lyon – to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.
Presqu'île, Vieux Lyon & Fourvière
Day one starts on Place Bellecour, one of Europe's largest squares, and crosses the Saône into the Renaissance quarter of Vieux Lyon with its traboules. The funicular carries you up to the Fourvière basilica and its view over the whole city, then on to the Roman theatres of Lugdunum. Back down, the day ends on Place des Terreaux and in the Musée des Beaux-Arts.
- Place Bellecour – The walk begins on Place Bellecour, one of the largest open squares in Europe: a vast, completely bare expanse of red gravel without a single tree in the middle. At its centre stands the equestrian statue of Louis XIV, and off to one side a small statue of the Little Prince with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who was born in Lyon. From here you can already see where the morning is heading: the white Fourvière basilica on the hill. The tourist office sits in the pavilion, and in winter a Ferris wheel turns here.
- Vieux Lyon (Saint-Jean) – Vieux Lyon is France's largest Renaissance quarter and has been UNESCO World Heritage since 1998: narrow lanes, ochre facades and courtyards from the 15th and 16th centuries, when Italian bankers built their houses here. The speciality is the traboules, covered passages cutting through buildings and yards from one street to the next - silk merchants used them to carry their bales to the river in the dry. Many are private houses with door codes; the publicly accessible ones are signposted, so keep your voice down and don't photograph into windows. Inside Saint-Jean cathedral, the 14th-century astronomical clock is worth a look.
- Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière – The Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica sits white above the city and is Lyon's landmark. It was built between 1872 and 1884 after the city vowed to raise a church if it was spared in the Franco-Prussian War. Because of its four corner towers, locals affectionately call it the upside-down elephant. Inside, everything is clad in gleaming gold mosaics, marble and stained glass, while the plain crypt below is the exact opposite. From the esplanade you look out over the rooftops to where the Rhône and Saône meet, and on a clear day as far as Mont Blanc.
- Roman theatres of Fourvière – A few hundred metres below the basilica lie the two ancient theatres of Fourvière, among them one of the oldest Roman theatres in Gaul. The large theatre went up around 15 BC under Emperor Augustus, when Lyon was still Lugdunum, capital of the three Gaulish provinces; beside it stands the smaller odeon with its coloured floor mosaic. The stone tiers are freely accessible, so you can simply sit down and look out over the city. In summer the theatre becomes the stage for the Nuits de Fourvière festival, and the modern museum next door holds the finds from Lugdunum.
- Place des Terreaux – Place des Terreaux is the big square between the Baroque city hall and the art museum, the bourgeois heart of the Presqu'île. Its centrepiece is the 1889 Bartholdi fountain with four rearing horses - built by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the same sculptor who made the Statue of Liberty. Across the rest of the square, 69 small jets are set into the ground, where children play in summer. Cafés with terraces line the edges, and at night the square is beautifully lit.
- Museum of Fine Arts – To close day one, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, after the Louvre one of France's largest art collections. It occupies the former 17th-century Benedictine abbey of Saint-Pierre, and simply walking the rooms from antiquity through Rubens and Rembrandt to Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso is half a marathon. If that's too much: the cloister with its quiet garden and sculptures is free to enter and the loveliest break in the centre. Closed on Tuesdays, and on Fridays it only opens at 10:30.
Market hall, Croix-Rousse & Confluence
Day two starts with food in the Les Halles Paul Bocuse market hall: cheese, charcuterie and oysters straight at the counter. Then it's up to Croix-Rousse, the silk weavers' hill, with its own traboules and the vast Mur des Canuts mural. To finish, the city's modern tip: the Musée des Confluences between the Rhône and the Saône, with the Parc de la Tête d'Or as an optional extra.
- Les Halles Paul Bocuse – Day two starts where Lyon is most honest: in the market hall that has carried chef Paul Bocuse's name since 2006. On two floors, some sixty stalls sell aged Saint-Marcellin, Lyon sausage, pâtés, oysters and pralines. The trick isn't to shop but to stand at a counter and order a glass of white wine - in the morning that counts as a perfectly normal breakfast here. Sundays it's only open until 1pm, but that's when it's fullest and liveliest.
- Croix-Rousse – Lyon's people say their city has two hills: Fourvière is the one that prays, Croix-Rousse the one that works. This is where the canuts, the silk weavers, lived - their huge Jacquard looms explain the strikingly tall windows and ceilings of the houses. There are traboules here too, rougher and far less touristy than in Vieux Lyon; the most famous is the Cour des Voraces with its massive stair facade. On Boulevard des Canuts stands the Mur des Canuts, a 1987 trompe-l'oeil mural that fakes a whole street scene and has been repainted several times to let its residents age. Around it: bistros, organic shops and an everyday market instead of souvenir stalls.
- Musée des Confluences – Right at the southern tip where the Rhône meets the Saône, the Musée des Confluences has stood since 2014: a deconstructivist pile of concrete, glass and steel by Vienna's Coop Himmelb(l)au, which its architects call the crystal and the cloud. Inside, the collection is just as wildly mixed - dinosaur skeletons, meteorites, mummies and objects from Oceania sit side by side, because the displays are arranged around big questions rather than by discipline. Even if you don't go in, the trip pays off: the rooftop terrace with its café is free and looks straight onto the meeting of the two rivers. Closed on Mondays.
- Parc de la Tête d'Or – If you still have time and energy, the Parc de la Tête d'Or in the north is worth it - one of France's largest urban parks and Lyon's green living room since 1857. Across more than a hundred hectares there's a big lake with rowing boats, a rose garden with thousands of rose bushes and the historic glasshouses of the botanical garden. The small zoo in the middle of the park is free, as is everything else here. A relaxed way to wind down before heading back to the centre.
Getting there & around
Lyon's centre, the Presqu'île between the two rivers, is easy to cover on foot; for everything else there's the TCL network with four metro lines, trams, buses and two funiculars (the ficelles) up to Fourvière. Good to know: the funicular is included in a normal ticket, you don't need an extra one. You pay in euros. Plan museums around closing days: the Musée des Beaux-Arts shuts on Tuesdays, the Musée des Confluences on Mondays. For a proper bouchon lyonnais, book ahead - they're small and often open only a few days a week.
Going out & nightlife
Rooftop bars
- Le Sucre – On the roof of the old La Sucrière sugar factory in the Confluence district sits Le Sucre: a bare concrete terrace looking over the Saône, with concerts, DJ sets and techno until morning. Honestly, it's more club than bar, and it only opens on event days. Check the programme first or you'll find the door shut - tickets are usually sold on the door.
Nightlife quarters
- Rue Sainte-Catherine (Presqu'île) – Rue Sainte-Catherine between Place des Terreaux and Hôtel de Ville is Lyon's party lane: a narrow street lined bar to bar, full of students and packed from early evening. Loud, young and cheap - this is where you start the night rather than end it. If you want it calmer, walk a few minutes to the Saône banks in Vieux Lyon, where the terraces are far more relaxed.
Food & restaurants
- Daniel et Denise (Croix-Rousse) – A textbook bouchon lyonnais: checked tablecloths, quenelles de brochet in crayfish sauce, pâté en croûte and offal without apology. There are several branches in town; this one sits up on Croix-Rousse and is the quietest. Finish with the tarte aux pralines, shocking pink and very sweet. Honest warning: opening days change and are often only a handful per week.
Stage & concerts
- Opéra National de Lyon – From outside it's a classical 1831 building with columns and muse statues, topped by a huge black glass barrel: Jean Nouvel gutted the opera house in the early 1990s and rebuilt the inside from scratch. The auditorium is deep red and black, steep and surprisingly intimate, with ballet and bold modern stagings on the bill. Two buildings in one, and that's exactly the appeal - the facade alone is worth a look at night from Place de la Comédie.
See all stops for Lyon in the app →