Explore Lyon

About Lyon

Lyon is France's understated culinary capital and — in a hot internal contest — arguably its most beautiful big city. Built at the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, with two hills and a Renaissance peninsula between them, the Vieux Lyon district at the foot of Fourvière hill is the largest surviving Renaissance neighbourhood in Europe and UNESCO-listed for it. Its labyrinth of traboules — secret pedestrian passages cutting between buildings, originally built for silk merchants to move goods in bad weather — are open to careful explorers (look for the bronze marker by the door). Cross the Saone and climb the funicular to the gleaming white Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica for the full panorama; the Roman amphitheatre on the same hill (still hosting concerts in summer) is two centuries older than the city it overlooks. Down on the Presqu'île, the elegant Place Bellecour, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse food market, and the bouchon restaurants (traditional Lyonnais bistros serving andouillette, quenelles, and tablier de sapeur) are unmissable. Lyon also gave us the Lumière brothers and effectively cinema; the Musée Lumière in their family house is wonderful.