Sights in Lyon
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Vieux Lyon's Traboules
The most celebrated of Vieux Lyon's traboules include those linking 27 rue St-Jean with 6 rue des Trois Maries; 54 rue St-Jean with 27 rue du Bœuf (push the intercom button to buzz open the door); 10 quai Romain Rolland with 2 place du Gouvernement; 17 quai Romain Rolland with 9 rue des Trois Maries; and 31 rue du Bœuf with 14 rue de la Bombarde. Although a couple of Vieux Lyon's traboules date from Roman times, most were constructed by canuts (silk weavers) in the 19th century to facilitate the transport of silk in inclement weather. Resistance fighters found them equally handy during WWII. Guided tours available.
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Musée des Beaux-Arts
This stunning and eminently manageable museum showcases France’s finest collection of sculptures and paintings outside Paris from antiquity on. Highlights include works by Rodin, Rubens, Rembrandt, Monet, Matisse and Picasso. Pick up a free audio guide and be sure to stop for a drink or meal on the delightful stone terrace off its café-restaurant and take time out in its tranquil cloister garden.
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Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière
Crowning the hill – with stunning city panoramas from its terrace – the 66m-long, 19m-wide and 27m-high basilica is lined with intricate mosaics and a superb example of late-19th-century French ecclesiastical architecture. One-hour discovery visits take in the main features of the basilica and crypt; rooftop tours climax on the stone-sculpted roof.
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Cathédrale St-Jean
This partly Romanesque cathedral, seat of Lyon’s 133rd bishop, was built between the late 11th and early 16th centuries. The portals of its Flamboyant Gothic facade, completed in 1480, are decorated with 280 square stone medallions. Don’t miss the astronomical clock in the north transept chiming at noon, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm daily.
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Musée des Confluences
The incredible Musée des Confluences, a spacey science- and society-focused museum is as much stunning piece of contemporary architecture as museum. It is housed in a futuristic steel-and-glass transparent crystal topped by a floating 'cloud'. Inside, three of the 10 vast exhibition areas grapple with eternal questions like 'Where do we come from?', 'Where are we going?' and 'Who are we and what are we doing?'.
Remaining spaces home in on hot issues of the future - cloning, genetically modified organisms, global warming and so on. Two auditoriums, a café, restaurants, shop and riverside garden complete the ambitious cultural ensemble, the creation of world-famous Austri…
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Place des Terreaux
The centrepiece of the Presqu’île’s beautiful central square is a 19th-century fountainmade of 21 tonnes of lead and sculpted by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (of Statue of Liberty fame). The four horses pulling the chariot symbolise rivers galloping seawards. The Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall) fronting the square was built in 1655 but given its present ornate facade in 1702. When Daniel Buren’s polka-dot ‘forest’ of 69 granite fountains (embedded in the ground across much of the square) are on, join the kids in a mad dash as the water dances up, down, disappears for a second and gushes back again.
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Musée Lumière
Cinema’s glorious beginnings are showcased at the art nouveau home of Antoine Lumière, who moved to Lyon with sons Auguste and Louis in 1870. The brothers shot the first reels of the world’s first motion picture, La Sortie des Usines Lumières (Exit of the Lumières Factories) here in one of their father’s photographic factories in the grounds on 19 March 1895. Today the former factory houses the Hangar du Premier Film cinema. It’s located 3km to the southeast of place Bellecour along cours Gambetta.
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Croix Rousse's Traboules
Step into the underworld of Croix Rousse's traboules at 9 place Colbert, crossing cours des Voraces - renowned for its monumental staircase that zigzags up seven floors - and emerging at 29 rue Imbert Colomès. Other well-known traboules in this fashionable quarter include those linking 1 place Colbert with 10 montée St-Sébastien and 9 place Colbert with 14bis montée St-Sébastien; and the plethora of passages on rue des Capucins: at Nos 3, 6, 13, 22 and 23.
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Musées Gadagne
Housed in a 16th-century mansion built for two rich Florentine bankers, this newly reopened museum incorporates an excellent local history museum covering the city’s layout as its silk-weaving, cinema and transportation evolved, and an international puppet museum paying homage to Lyon’s iconic puppet, Guignol. On the 4th floor, a café adjoins tranquil, terraced gardens, here since the 14th century and laid out two centuries later.
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Fourvière
Over two millennia ago, the Romans built the city of Lugdunum on the slopes of Fourvière. Today, Lyon's 'hill of prayer' - topped by a basilica and the Tour Métallique - affords spectacular views of the city and its two rivers. Footpaths wind uphill but the funicular departing from place Édouard Commette is the least taxing way up; use a metro ticket or buy a return funicular ticket.
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Musée de l'Automobile Henri Malartre
Motoring enthusiasts can drool over 120 vintage cars (not to mention Hitler's Mercedes and Jean-Paul II's Renault Espace!), 50-odd motorbikes, bicycles and modes of Lyonnais public transport over the centuries at the chateau-museum Musée de l'Automobile Henri Malartre, 11km north of central Lyon along the Saône-side D433. Take bus 40 or 70 to the 'Rochetaillée' stop.
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Opéra de Lyon
Lyon’s neoclassical 1831-built opera house was modernised in 1993 by renowned French architect Jean Nouvel, who added the striking semi-cylindrical glass-domed roof. On its northern side, boarders and bladers buzz around the fountains of place Louis Pradel, surveyed by the Homme de la Liberté (Man of Freedom) on roller skates, sculpted from scrap metal by Marseille-born César.
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Parc de la Tête d’Or
Spanning 117 hectares, France’s largest urban park was landscaped in the 1860s. It’s graced by a lake, botanic garden with greenhouses, rose garden and zoo (9am-5pm), with lions, tigers, bears, giraffes and more. In summer hire boats, ride ponies, take a twirl on a fairground ride or watch a puppet show. Buses 41 and 47 link it with metro Part-Dieu.
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Boutique du Musée
Nearby, the Musée des Beaux-Arts showcases France's finest collection of sculptures and paintings, outside Paris, from every period of European art. Its cloister garden is a great picnic venue. Pick up stylish, art-driven jewellery pieces and other souvenirs in its upmarket Boutique du Musée .
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Musée de la Poupée
Dolls of all ages and origins grace the elegant rooms of the Musée de la Poupée, inside a fairy-tale castle 12km northwest from the centre. A vast green wooded park hugs the 16th-century chateau and an electric train takes punters on park tours in summer. The fountain-studded paddling pool makes cooling down on hot summer days great fun.
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Fresque des Lyonnais
Well-known Lyonnais peer out from this seven-storey mural, including loom inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752–1834), Renaissance poet Maurice Scève (c 1499–1560), superstar chef Paul Bocuse (b 1926), puppet Guignol, and the yellow-haired Little Prince, created by author/aviator Antoine de St-Exupéry (1900–44).
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Maison de La Confluence
Maison de La Confluence, with a bird’s-eye view of construction from its rooftop terrace, displays scale models of the area’s ongoing development. Already-completed developments include the unique marketplace-like eating space Rue Le Bec, part of Lyonnais chef Nicolas Le Bec’s expanding empire.
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Palais de Justice
Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon), with its cobblestone streets and medieval and Renaissance houses below Fourvière hill, is divided into three quarters: St-Paul at the northern end, St-Jean in the middle and St-Georges in the south. Facing the river in Old Lyon is the grandiose Palais de Justice.
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Lyon Confluence
The Lyon Confluence - the spot where the Rhône and the Saône meet south of Gare de Perrache - is the city's most exciting urban space. An industrial wasteland for decades, the riverside site is now the subject of a mammoth around €780 million rejuvenation project.
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Musée d’Art Contemporain
Parc de la Tête d’Or’s northern realms abut Lyon’s contemporary art museum, which mounts edgy temporary exhibitions and the rotating permanent collection of post-1960 art. It closes for up to a couple of months between exhibitions, so check to make sure something’s on.
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Musée Henri Malarte
Jean-Paul II’s Renault Espace, Hitler’s Mercedes, 50-odd motorbikes, bicycles and historical modes of Lyonnais public transport are showcased inside this 15th-century château, 11km north of Lyon along the D433. Take bus number 40 or 70 to the Rochetaillée stop.
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Medieval & Renaissance Architecture
Lovely old buildings line rue du Bœuf, rue St-Jean and rue des Trois Maries. Crane your neck upwards to see gargoyles and other cheeky stone characters carved on window ledges along rue Juiverie, home to Lyon’s Jewish community in the Middle Ages.
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Croix Rousse
Soulful Croix Rousse - a gargantuan step back in time from the Lyon Confluence - is known for its village air, bohemian inhabitants and lush outdoor food market. The hilltop neighbourhood quietly buzzes north up the steep pentes (slopes).
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Centre d’Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation
The 1942–44 WWII headquarters of Gestapo commander Klaus Barbie now evokes Lyon’s role as the ‘Capital of the Resistance’ (as proclaimed by General de Gaulle) through moving multimedia exhibitions. Temporary exhibits cost €4 extra.
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place Louis Pradel
Boarders and bladers buzz around the fountains of riverside place Louis Pradel, surveyed by the Homme de la Liberté (Man of Freedom) on roller-skates, sculpted from scrap metal by Marseille-born César (1921-98).
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