Lyon travel

Getty Images/Robert Harding World Imagery

Lyon

Commanding a strategic spot at the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône Rivers, Lyon has been luring people ever since the Romans named it Lugdunum in 43 BC. Commercial, industrial and banking powerhouse for the past 500 years, Lyon is France's third-largest city, and offers today's urban explorers a wealth of enticing experiences.

Best Things to Do

Day Trips

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Lyon Confluence
Lyon
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…
Musée des Confluences
Lyon
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…
Cathédrale St-Jean-Baptiste
Lyon
Lyon's partly Romanesque cathedral was built between the late 11th and early 16th centuries. The portals of its Flamboyant Gothic facade, completed in…
Musées Gadagne
Lyon
Housed in a 16th-century mansion built for two rich Florentine bankers, this twin-themed exhibition space incorporates an excellent local history museum,…
Place des Terreaux
Lyon
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…
Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière
Lyon
Crowning the hill, with stunning city panoramas from its terrace, this superb example of late-19th-century French ecclesiastical architecture is lined…
Musée des Beaux-Arts
Lyon
This stunning and eminently manageable museum showcases France's finest collection of sculptures and paintings outside of Paris, from antiquity onwards…
Opéra de Lyon
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…