Things to do 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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Centre Commercial La Part-Dieu
Adjacent to the Part-Dieu train station, Lyon's vast indoor shopping centre is dominated by a pencil-shaped tower nicknamed le crayon.
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Decitre
Stocks foreign-language fiction including English (very limited travel section).
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Traboules - Guided Tour
There's more to parts of Lyon than meets the eye. Beneath the city in Vieux Lyon and Croix Rousse, dark and dingy traboules wind their way through apartment blocks, under streets and into courtyards. In all, 315 passages link 230 streets and have a combined length of 50km. Genuine traboules cut from one street to another, often wending their way up fabulous spiral staircases en route. Passages that fan out into a courtyard or lead into a cul de sac are not traboules, but rather miraboules.
The tourist office runs guided traboule tours and distributes a free map of Croix-Rousse and Vieux Lyon marked up with all the traboules alongside interesting courtyards, building façad…
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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 fountain made 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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Mère Brazier
Chef Mathieu Vianney has reinvented the mythical early-20th-century restaurant that earned Mère (Eugénie) Brazier Lyon's first trio of Michelin stars in 1933 (a copy of the original guidebook takes pride of place). Brazier was also the first-ever chef to earn two sets of three Michelin stars, a feat only equalled decades later by Alain Ducasse. Vianney is doing admirable justice to Brazier's legacy, claiming two Michelin stars himself for his assured cuisine accompanied by an impressive (and impressively well-priced) wine list.
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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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L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges
Heading some 6.5km north of central Lyon via quai Georges Clemenceau brings you to this triple-Michelin-starred restaurant of the city's most decorated chef, Paul Bocuse. Classics include the likes of sea bass stuffed with lobster mousse in a puff-pastry shell, and thyme-roasted rack of lamb, as well as Bocuse's signature soupe VGE (truffle soup created for former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1975).
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St Jean Délices
For the sweetest souvenirs, this enticing spot sells all eight varieties of Lyon's specialty sweets made by traditional local confectioners including les coussins de Lyon (Curacao-flavoured dark chocolate in sugary almond paste) and les pralines rouges (almonds in red vanilla-flavoured caramelised coating, which is a fixture of local desserts and patisseries), as well as handmade chocolates.
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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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Alyssaar
One of Lyon's finest exotic offerings, Alyssaar specialises in the cuisine of Aleppo, undoubtedly 'the gastronomic capital of the Middle East' as far as the Syrian-born owner of this cheap, cheerful and Syrian restaurant is concerned. Daabill (meatballs in spicy tomato sauce), kharouf (lamb in a sesame cream sauce) and kebab karaz (cherry beef) are all cooked up here.
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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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Oxalis
Thanks to an Armenian grandmother and a generous dose of far-flung travel, Lyon-born chef Sonia Ezgulian fuses Mediterranean with Asian and African to create a cuisine that stuns, surprises and spans the globe. Wanna' know how to cook an Oxalis-style dinner in 45 minutes or how to make the most of Lyon's Halle de la Martinière? Sign up for one of Sonia's cooking courses.
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Les Halles de Lyon
Lyon’s famed indoor food market Les Halles de Lyon has over 60 stalls selling their renowned wares. Pick up a round of impossibly runny St Marcellin from legendary cheesemonger Mère Richard, and a knobbly Jésus de Lyon from pork butcher Collette Sibilia. Or enjoy a sit-down lunch of local produce at the stalls, lip-smacking coquillages (shellfish) included.
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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, 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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L'Ouest
With the emphasis at Ouest (meaning 'west') being island (any island) cuisine, chefs trained by legendary Lyon chef Paul Bocuse cook up everything from king-prawn spring rolls with fresh mint and saffron-spiced crab soup to wok-fried Asian cod in a state-of-the-art open kitchen. Décor is minimalist, avant garde and includes a deck overlooking the Saône.
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Grand Café des Négociants
Dubbed Les Négos by locals, this café-style brasserie with mirror-lined walls and a tree-shaded terrace has been a favourite meeting point with Lyonnais since 1864. Don't miss a pot of its deliciously thick hot chocolate (tip: it's cheaper before noon). Look for the gargantuan mulberry flower pots framing the apple-green and cherry-coloured tables out front.
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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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