Flight time
1h 50m
Best season
April–June & September–October
Budget
Mid-range
Best for
Food, silk history, bouchon culture, UNESCO old town
Overview
Why Lyon for a city break?
Lyon is France's gastronomic capital — the city where Paul Bocuse made French cooking famous, where the bouchon (the traditional Lyon bistro) serves quenelles, andouillette, pike perch with beurre blanc and cervelle de canut (herbed fresh cheese) with a surly charm that is itself part of the tradition, and where the two rivers (the Saône and the Rhône) converge in a peninsula of extraordinary Renaissance architecture. The Vieux-Lyon quarter is the largest Renaissance urban ensemble in Europe after Venice. The traboules — the covered passageways running through the Renaissance blocks — are a civic secret hiding in plain sight.
From London it's under two hours; from Manchester, Edinburgh and regional airports with connections via Paris or direct. Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport is 25km from the centre (the Rhônexpress tram runs direct to Part-Dieu station in 30 minutes, €16.90). The city is genuinely one of the best value in France — cheaper than Paris and Bordeaux, with a restaurant scene that arguably rivals both. The Beaujolais wine region is 30 minutes north; the Côtes du Rhône begins 40 minutes south. Beaujolais Nouveau night in November is an extraordinary event.
Where to stay & explore
Lyon's best neighbourhoods
Vieux-Lyon & Fourvière
The UNESCO Renaissance quarter on the west bank of the Saône — the largest Renaissance ensemble in Europe, the traboules, the Cathedral, the funicular to Fourvière hill.
La Presqu'île
The peninsula between the two rivers — the finest bouchons, the covered Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse food market, the Place Bellecour (one of the largest public squares in France) and the Opéra.
Croix-Rousse
The former silk-weavers' neighbourhood on the hill above the Presqu'île — the canuts (silk workers) who fuelled the Lyon silk trade lived and worked here, and the traboules connecting their workshops still exist.
Things to do
What to see in Lyon
1
Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse
The greatest covered food market in France and one of the finest in the world — named after Paul Bocuse, who had a counter here until his death in 2018. Fifty-six specialist merchants: Colette Sibilia for charcuterie (the finest Lyon rosette and Jesus sausages in the city), Mère Richard for Saint-Marcellin cheese (the runny, creamy disc of ripened cheese that is Lyon's defining fromage), Bouillet for chocolates and the finest praline rose (pink praline tart), and the best seafood, bread and wine counters in the city. Go Tuesday to Sunday morning; eat at the market's small restaurant counters.
2
Vieux-Lyon & the Traboules
The largest Renaissance urban ensemble in Europe — the Vieux-Lyon quarter of Saint-Jean, Saint-Paul and Saint-Georges contains an extraordinary concentration of 15th and 16th-century architecture, including the traboules: covered passageways running through buildings and courtyards that allowed Lyon's silk merchants to transport their goods protected from the weather. Most traboules are accessible during the day — look for the small plaques beside certain doorways. The tourist office publishes a traboule map. The Cathédrale Saint-Jean and the astronomical clock inside it are excellent.
3
Fourvière Hill & Roman Theatre
The funicular from Vieux-Lyon climbs to the Fourvière hill — the original Roman city of Lugdunum, with a 1st-century BC amphitheatre that still hosts the Nuits de Fourvière festival each summer, the Gallo-Roman Museum (an extraordinary collection of Roman Lyon, built into the hillside below the theatre), and the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière (a 19th-century basilica of baroque excess, beloved and mocked in equal measure by Lyonnais). The view over Lyon from the esplanade is the finest available.
4
Musée des Beaux-Arts
The second-largest fine arts museum in France after the Louvre — housed in a 17th-century former Benedictine convent, with extraordinary holdings in Egyptian antiquities, medieval sculpture (the finest collection in France outside the Louvre), and old master painting (Rubens, Rembrandt, Veronese, Tintoretto). The Impressionist collection and the rooms of 19th-century French painting are also excellent. Free on the first Sunday of each month.
Food & drink
Where to eat in Lyon
Daniel et Denise Saint-Jean
Bouchon lyonnais / Vieux-Lyon
The finest bouchon in Lyon — Joseph Viola's Saint-Jean restaurant serves the definitive versions of Lyon's great dishes: quenelle de brochet (pike fish mousse, the size of a large shoe), tablier de sapeur (tripe in breadcrumbs), tête de veau (calf's head), and the definitive cervelle de canut. Traditionalist, serious, occasionally intimidating, entirely brilliant. Book ahead.
Café Comptoir Abel
Historic bouchon / est. 1928
The most atmospheric bouchon in Lyon — established 1928, run by the same family for four generations, with zinc bar, tiled floor and walls covered in kitchen equipment. The andouillette (a tripe sausage of extraordinary pungency that divides opinion permanently) and the gratin dauphinois are the classics. One of the most genuinely Lyonnais eating experiences available.
Les Halles de Lyon (market lunch)
Market counter dining
The best value lunch in Lyon — a stool at the Mère Brazier counter or the Chabert et Fils counter inside the Halles de Lyon market. A plate of charcuterie, a Saint-Marcellin cheese (it should run off the board), a glass of Beaujolais, a coffee. Under €20. The most authentically Lyonnais mid-morning experience available to visitors.
Itinerary
3 days in Lyon — a suggested itinerary
Day 1
Halles de Lyon, Vieux-Lyon traboules, bouchon dinner
Rhônexpress from Saint-Exupéry Airport to Part-Dieu (30 minutes, €16.90). Walk to the Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse on the Presqu'île — the market counters, a mid-morning snack of charcuterie and Saint-Marcellin at the bar, the praline rose from Bouillet for later. Tram or walk to Vieux-Lyon across the Saône: the traboule map from the tourist office, then two hours of wandering through the passageways and courtyards of the Renaissance quarter. The Cathédrale Saint-Jean and the astronomical clock. Funicular to Fourvière: the Roman theatre, the Gallo-Roman Museum (extraordinary), the view. Back to the Presqu'île for dinner: Daniel et Denise Saint-Jean (booked weeks ahead).
Day 2
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Croix-Rousse, Beaujolais afternoon
Musée des Beaux-Arts at 10am (free on first Sunday) — the Egyptian rooms, the medieval sculpture, the Rubens and Rembrandt. Place des Terreaux outside — the Bartholdi fountain (by the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty). Croix-Rousse hill by funicular or foot: the silk workers' neighbourhood, the Maison des Canuts (the silk museum, with working Jacquard looms), the Croix-Rousse traboules (longer and more dramatic than Vieux-Lyon's), the boulevard market on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. Down to the Presqu'île for a late lunch at one of the Célestins neighbourhood restaurants. Train or car to the Beaujolais: Villié-Morgon or Fleurie for cellar door tasting at one of the domaines; back to Lyon for dinner at Café Comptoir Abel.
Day 3
Confluence district, final market lunch, one last Beaujolais
Lyon Confluence — the new cultural district at the southern tip of the Presqu'île, where the Saône and Rhône actually converge. The Musée des Confluences (a spectacular deconstructivist building by Coop Himmelb(l)au, housing natural history, anthropology and science collections) is excellent. The Confluence market on Sunday mornings is outstanding. Walk back up the Presqu'île for a final lunch at the Halles de Lyon counter. One last glass of Beaujolais — a Morgon or Moulin-à-Vent at any of the Presqu'île wine bars — before the Rhônexpress back to the airport.
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