Lyon's contemporary-art museum mounts edgy temporary exhibitions and a rotating permanent collection of post-1960 art. It sometimes closes for several weeks between exhibitions, so check to make sure there's something on. Buses stop right out front.
Musée d'Art Contemporain
Lyon
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
3.88 MILES
This eye-catching building, designed by the Viennese firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, is the crowning glory of Lyon's newest neighbourhood, the Confluence, at…
1.49 MILES
This stunning and eminently manageable museum showcases France's finest collection of sculptures and paintings outside of Paris, from antiquity onwards…
17.65 MILES
Across the Rhône from Vienne, the Musée Gallo-Romain highlights Vienne's historical importance, displaying several rooms full of dazzling mosaics and…
Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière
2.1 MILES
Crowning the hill, with stunning city panoramas from its terrace, this superb example of late-19th-century French ecclesiastical architecture is lined…
3.51 MILES
Lyon's race toward the future is personified in this reborn industrial district near the southern tip of Presqu'île. Once a landscape of empty warehouses…
2.02 MILES
Lyon's partly Romanesque cathedral was built between the late 11th and early 16th centuries. The portals of its Flamboyant Gothic facade, completed in…
1.84 MILES
Housed in a 16th-century mansion built for two rich Florentine bankers, this twin-themed exhibition space incorporates an excellent local history museum,…
1.47 MILES
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…
Nearby Lyon attractions
0.55 MILES
If you're museumed out, head to this lovely space north of the centre, which provides a green haven for nature lovers and families. Spanning 117 hectares,…
0.8 MILES
Preserved for posterity by the Soierie Vivante association, this silk-trimmings workshop functioned until 1979, weaving braids and intricate pictures…
0.95 MILES
Accessible strictly by guided tour, this wonderful old workshop houses looms that produce large fabrics. It's best visited in conjunction with the nearby…
1.01 MILES
The Jardin Rosa Mir is a walled garden decorated with thousands of seashells accessed off a narrow laneway.
1.02 MILES
On a 50-minute guided tour, learn about weavers' labour-intensive life and the industry's evolution, see manual looms in use, and browse the silk boutique…
1.26 MILES
Said to be Europe's largest fresco, this magnificent trompe l'oeil shows a slice of daily life among Lyon's residents. The work is packed with intricate…
1.36 MILES
Lyon's neoclassical 1831-built opera house was modernised in 1993 by renowned French architect Jean Nouvel, who added the striking semi-cylindrical glass…
1.47 MILES
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…