Lyon, France, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)

▶ Video · Lyon on Foot

Video guide · 55:45

▶ Watch the guide

Top 10EuropeFrance

Top 10 Things To Do in Lyon

Country

France

Best months

May · Jun · Sep

Population

About 520,000 (city)

Language

French

Budget / day

€110–190

Quick answer

Three days covers Lyon. Give the first to the hill: the funicular up to Fourvière, the basilica terrace and the Roman theatres, then down through the traboules of Vieux Lyon. Spend the second on the Presqu'île and the Croix-Rousse, with the Musée des Beaux-Arts and a bouchon booked for the evening. Keep the third for the Confluence, or take a train out to Pérouges or Vienne.

Lyon on Foot

▶ Video guide

Lyon has been a crossroads since the Romans founded Lugdunum here in 43 BC, and the city still reads in layers: a Roman hill, a Renaissance quarter, a nineteenth-century silk district and a glass-and-steel confluence. UNESCO listed 427 hectares of it in 1998. It is also where French cooking keeps its rulebook.

The 10 best things to do in Lyon

Climb to Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Landmark· 8 place de Fourvière, 69005 Lyon

The basilica went up between 1872 and 1896 on the site of the Roman forum, and it is deliberately excessive: mosaic walls, gilded ceilings, a crypt beneath the nave. The reason to come is the terrace behind it, which puts the whole city, both rivers and, on a clear day, the Alps into one frame. The funicular takes two minutes on a standard ticket.

Time1–2 hrs

CostFree

Best atLate afternoon

TipRide the funicular up, walk down

Map ↗ Website

Walk the traboules of Vieux Lyon

Neighbourhood· Rue Saint-Jean, 69005 Lyon

Traboules are covered passages cut through buildings and courtyards, built so that finished silk could cross town without the rain touching it. Vieux Lyon is the largest Renaissance quarter in the city and one of the biggest in Europe, and a signposted handful stay open behind plain street doors. The one at 54 rue Saint-Jean runs through four courtyards.

Time1–2 hrs

CostFree

Best atMorning

TipStart at 54 rue Saint-Jean

Map ↗ Website

Musée des Confluences

Museum· 86 quai Perrache, 69002 Lyon

Coop Himmelb(l)au's crystal-and-cloud building sits on the spit of land where the Rhône meets the Saône, and the architecture alone justifies the walk south. Inside, 3,000 square metres of permanent galleries run natural history, anthropology and science together rather than filing them separately, so a mammoth stands within sight of a Tuareg saddle.

Time2–3 hrs

CostTicketed

Best atWeekday

TipFree on the first Sunday

Map ↗ Website

Eat through Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse

Food· 102 cours Lafayette, 69003 Lyon

The covered market opened in 1971, was rebuilt in 2004 and took Bocuse’s name in 2006. Fifty-six independent traders work its three floors: cheese ripened in the cellar below, rosette and quenelles from the charcutiers, oyster counters where you stand and eat with a glass of white. Come hungry rather than shopping, and treat lunch as the point of the visit.

Time1–2 hrs

CostFree entry

Best atLate morning

TipEat standing at an oyster counter

Map ↗ Website

Musée des Beaux-Arts

Museum· 20 place des Terreaux, 69001 Lyon

The largest fine-art collection in France outside the Louvre, held in a seventeenth-century Benedictine abbey on place des Terreaux. Seventy rooms run from Egyptian antiquities to the twentieth century, with a strong Impressionist floor near the top. The cloister garden in the middle is free to sit in whether or not you buy a ticket.

Time2–3 hrs

CostTicketed

Best atMorning

TipThe cloister garden costs nothing

Map ↗ Website

Lugdunum, museum and Roman theatres

Museum· 17 rue Cléberg, 69005 Lyon

Two Roman theatres are cut into the Fourvière hillside, the larger built when Lugdunum was capital of the Three Gauls. Bernard Zehrfuss buried the museum in the slope beside them, so the visit spirals downward past mosaics, the bronze Claudian Table and a chariot. Each summer the big theatre becomes the stage for the Nuits de Fourvière.

Time2 hrs

CostTicketed

Best atMorning

TipPair it with the basilica above

Map ↗ Website

Parc de la Tête d’Or

Park· Boulevard des Belges, 69006 Lyon

One of the largest urban parks in France, laid out in 1857 around a boating lake, with a free zoo, a rose garden running to thousands of varieties and nineteenth-century glasshouses at the far end. Lyon uses it properly: rowing, running, long picnics on the grass. Come in through the wrought-iron Porte des Enfants du Rhône and walk the lake anticlockwise.

Time1–2 hrs

CostFree

Best atWeekend morning

TipThe zoo is free as well

Map

Croix-Rousse and the Mur des Canuts

Neighbourhood· 36 boulevard des Canuts, 69004 Lyon

The hill above the Presqu'île was rebuilt in the 1800s to house silk looms, which is why its flats have four-metre ceilings and its slopes are laced with traboules. The Mur des Canuts is a painted facade of about 1,200 square metres, repainted three times since 1987 so the painted residents age alongside the real ones.

Time2 hrs

CostFree

Best atMorning

TipMetro up the hill, walk down

Map

Institut Lumière

Museum· 25 rue du Premier-Film, 69008 Lyon

Cinema was invented on this street. The Lumière brothers filmed workers leaving their father’s factory here in 1895, and the family villa now holds the cameras, posters and first films, alongside a screening room. The factory wall that closes the yard is the one in the shot. The institute also runs the Lumière festival every October.

Time1–2 hrs

CostTicketed

Best atAfternoon

TipMetro B to Monplaisir Lumière

Map ↗ Website

Place Bellecour and the Presqu’île

Landmark· Place Bellecour, 69002 Lyon

Bellecour is one of the largest open squares in Europe: a bare red-gravel rectangle with Louis XIV on horseback in the middle and the tourist office along its south side. It is the hinge of the Presqu’île. Rue de la République runs north from it to the Terreaux, rue Victor Hugo south to Perrache, and both are for walking rather than riding.

Time1 hr

CostFree

Best atEvening

TipStart at the tourist office

Map ↗ Website

All 10, mapped

Lyon · 10 spots

AllLandmarksMuseumsFoodFree

Lyon travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Lyon?+

Three. One for the Fourvière hill and Vieux Lyon, one for the Presqu’île and the Croix-Rousse, one for the Confluence or a train out to Pérouges or Vienne. Two works if you drop the day trip.

When is the best time to visit Lyon?+

May, June and September. The city is warm without the August shutdown and the terraces are open. December is the exception worth planning around: the Fête des Lumières fills four nights near the 8th and beds sell out months ahead.

What is a bouchon, and how do you find a real one?+

A bouchon is a small Lyonnais restaurant serving pork, offal and quenelles at close-packed tables. The Bouchons Lyonnais label, run with the tourist office, is the reliable filter: labelled rooms are audited, and rue des Marronniers holds plenty that are not.

Do you need a car in Lyon?+

No. The metro, trams, buses and both funiculars run on one TCL ticket, the centre is walkable end to end, and every day trip worth taking leaves from Part-Dieu by train.

What should you eat in Lyon?+

Quenelle de brochet, cervelle de canut, rosette, tablier de sapeur and a praline tart, in roughly that order. Book a bouchon table for the evening and give lunch to Les Halles.

Where to eat

Best bouchons in Lyon (2026)

Labelled rooms, pork and quenelles, and tables you book rather than wander into.

All 6 bouchons →

Since 1928

Presqu’île

Café Comptoir Abel

Bouchon · €€

Wood panelling, lace curtains and a dining room that has been in service since 1928. The oven-baked pike quenelle and the salade lyonnaise are the reasons to book ahead.

Map

Labelled

Vieux Lyon

Daniel et Denise Saint-Jean

Bouchon · €€

Joseph Viola is a Meilleur Ouvrier de France and runs three bouchons. The Saint-Jean room is the one to book, for the pâté en croûte.

Map

Labelled

Presqu’île

La Meunière

Bouchon · €€

A labelled bouchon a block from the Opéra, known for the saladiers lyonnais brought to the table to help yourself and for a properly crisp tablier de sapeur.

Map

Labelled

Presqu’île

Chabert et Fils

Bouchon · €€

Rue des Marronniers is wall-to-wall bouchons and plenty of them coast on the address. Chabert et Fils carries the label and holds the line on quenelles and andouillette.

Map

Labelled

Vieux Lyon

Les Lyonnais

Bouchon · €€

Photographs of local worthies cover every wall. Order the cochonnailles board for the table first, then work down the blackboard.

Map

Labelled

Presqu’île

Le Vivarais

Bouchon · €€

A quieter labelled room near the Rhône quays, run in the old style: short blackboard, large portions, no theatre.

Map

Fine dining

Best restaurants in Lyon (2026)

The starred rooms, the Bocuse pilgrimage and the brasserie that has outlived them all.

All 6 restaurants →

Two stars

Presqu’île

La Mère Brazier

French · €€€€

Eugénie Brazier took three stars here in 1933. Mathieu Viannay reopened it in 2008 and holds two, cooking her quenelle beside his own menu.

Map ↗ Website

Two stars

Brotteaux

Takao Takano

French · €€€€

Two stars for precise, vegetable-forward French cooking in a deliberately bare dining room. Lunch is the affordable way in.

Map ↗ Website

Two stars

Brotteaux

Le Neuvième Art

French · €€€€

Christophe Roure’s two-star room sits a few streets from the Parc de la Tête d’Or. Technique-led plates, long menus and one of the better wine lists in the city.

Map ↗ Website

One star

Sixth arrondissement

Les Apothicaires

Market menu · €€€

One star, an open kitchen and a short menu that follows the market rather than a template. A small room, so book well ahead.

Map ↗ Website

Paul Bocuse, l’Auberge du Pont de Collonges

Institution

Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or

Paul Bocuse, l’Auberge du Pont de Collonges

French · €€€€

Bocuse held three stars at this riverside house for fifty-five years, and the kitchen still sends out the truffle soup. Twenty minutes north along the Saône.

Map ↗ Website

Since 1836

Perrache

Brasserie Georges

Brasserie · €€

An 1836 brasserie the size of a station concourse, with art deco fittings and beer brewed for the house. Choucroute, sole meunière and service that runs late.

Map ↗ Website

Culture

Best museums in Lyon (2026)

Six collections, from Roman mosaics to Jacquard looms that still run.

All 6 museums →

Confluence

Musée des Confluences

Science & society

Natural history, anthropology and science under one crystal roof at the tip of the peninsula. Free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month.

Map ↗ Website

Presqu’île

Musée des Beaux-Arts

Fine art

Seventy rooms in a former Benedictine abbey, the largest fine-art holdings in France after the Louvre. The cloister garden costs nothing.

Map ↗ Website

Fourvière

Lugdunum

Roman Lyon

Mosaics, the bronze Claudian Table and a museum sunk into the hillside beside the two Roman theatres it explains.

Map ↗ Website

Monplaisir

Institut Lumière

Cinema

The villa and factory yard where cinema began in 1895, now a museum of the brothers’ cameras, posters and first films.

Map ↗ Website

Vieux Lyon

Musée Gadagne

History & puppets

Two museums in one Renaissance mansion: the history of Lyon, and the puppet arts that gave the city Guignol. The hanging gardens are the surprise.

Map ↗ Website

Croix-Rousse

Maison des Canuts

Silk weaving

A working silk workshop on the hill, where Jacquard looms are demonstrated by weavers who still earn a living on them.

Map ↗ Website

After dark

Best bars in Lyon (2026)

A speakeasy, two rooftops and the view from the thirty-second floor.

All 5 bars →

Presqu’île

L’Antiquaire

Cocktails

Lyon’s original speakeasy, open since 2010. Low light, Chesterfield armchairs and classics built without shortcuts.

Map

Presqu’île

Le Comptoir de la Bourse

Cocktails

A serious list on a busy square, with bartenders happy to build something around a spirit you name rather than a drink you order.

Map

Confluence

Le Sucre

Rooftop & club

The roof of La Sucrière, a converted sugar warehouse, running terrace sets and club nights above the Saône.

Map

Presqu’île

Les Muses de l’Opéra

Rooftop

Seventh floor of Jean Nouvel’s opera house, with a terrace looking straight across the rooftops at the Fourvière hill.

Map

Part-Dieu

Le Celest

Sky bar

Thirty-two floors up the Tour Part-Dieu, and the only bar in the city that will show you the Alps on a clear evening.

Map

Shop like a local

Best markets in Lyon (2026)

Where Lyon buys its food, plus one Sunday market for everything else.

All 4 markets →

Part-Dieu

Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse

Covered market

Fifty-six traders across three floors: cheese, charcuterie, oysters and counters to eat them at without sitting down.

Map ↗ Website

Presqu’île

Marché Saint-Antoine Célestins

Open-air market

The largest open-air market in the city, strung along the Saône under the plane trees. A morning market: the tourist office lists which days it runs.

Map ↗ Website

Croix-Rousse

Marché de la Croix-Rousse

Open-air market

The hill’s own market, running the length of the boulevard inside the UNESCO perimeter and sold to people who live there.

Map ↗ Website

Vieux Lyon

Marché de la Création

Art market

Sunday mornings on the Saône quay, where the city’s painters, printmakers and jewellers sell straight from the stall.

Map ↗ Website

Where to base yourself

Best neighbourhoods in Lyon (2026)

Five districts, and what each is actually good for.

All 5 neighbourhoods →

Right bank of the Saône

Vieux Lyon

5th arrondissement

The Renaissance quarter under the hill: cobbles, traboules, Saint-Jean cathedral and the densest run of bouchons. Loud in the evening, quiet by ten.

Map

Between the rivers

Presqu’île

1st & 2nd arrondissements

The peninsula between the Rhône and the Saône, and the centre in practice. Bellecour, the Terreaux, the shopping streets and most of the good bars.

Map

The silk hill

Croix-Rousse

1st & 4th arrondissements

Still the most residential of the central districts. Four-metre ceilings built for looms, a daily market and long views down over the roofs.

Map

South of Perrache

Confluence

2nd arrondissement

The old port, rebuilt as one of the largest inner-city regeneration projects in Europe. The Confluences museum, La Sucrière and a shopping centre on the water.

Map

Left bank of the Rhône

La Guillotière

7th arrondissement

The most mixed part of the city, and the best value eating in it: North African, Chinese and Vietnamese kitchens along rue de Marseille.

Map

Out of town

Best day trips from Lyon (2026)

Six trips, every one of them reachable from Part-Dieu without a car.

All 6 day trips →

Ain

Pérouges

30–40 min by train

A walled medieval village on a hill above the plain, kept almost entirely intact. Twenty minutes uphill from the station, and worth it for the galette.

Map

Isère

Vienne

20–30 min by train

A Roman town on the Rhône with a temple standing in the middle of it and a theatre cut into the hill above. Jazz à Vienne fills that theatre each summer.

Map

Rhône

The Beaujolais

About 1 hr by train

Golden-stone villages and gamay vineyards north of the city. Villefranche-sur-Saône is the rail gateway; the ten crus are the reason to find wheels once you arrive.

Map

Haute-Savoie

Annecy

About 2 hrs by train

A lake the colour of a swimming pool, a canal-cut old town and mountains on three sides. Go on the first train and swim before lunch.

Map

Isère

Grenoble

About 2 hrs by train

The Alps start at the end of the street. Ride the bubble cable car up to the Bastille for the view back down the Isère valley.

Map

Ain

Bourg-en-Bresse

About 1 hr by train

The Royal Monastery of Brou, a flamboyant Gothic set piece with three carved tombs and a glazed-tile roof, plus Bresse chicken cooked where it is raised.

Map

What's on

Festivals & annual events in Lyon (2026)

Time your trip around the city's biggest dates.

Apr

Quais du Polar

Crime writing takes over the Palais de Justice and the city’s bookshops for a weekend.

May

Nuits Sonores

Five days of electronic and independent music, staged in industrial spaces around the city.

Jun–Jul

Nuits de Fourvière

Theatre, dance, circus and concerts in the Roman theatres, running most of the summer.

21 Jun

Fête de la Musique

Free music on every square and street corner for the summer solstice, as across France.

Jun–Jul

Jazz à Vienne

Two weeks of jazz in the Roman theatre at Vienne, half an hour down the Rhône.

Sep–Jan

Biennale de Lyon

Contemporary art across the city’s museums and disused industrial sites, in alternate years.

Oct

Festival Lumière

A week of restored classics and a lifetime award, run by the Institut Lumière.

Dec

Fête des Lumières

Four December nights around the 8th when light artists take the facades. Free, and book beds months ahead.

Getting around

Lyon transport & airports

How to arrive and move around the city.

LYS

Lyon-Saint-Exupéry

Twenty-five kilometres east of the city, with its own TGV station attached. The Rhônexpress tram-train runs into Part-Dieu in about thirty minutes, every fifteen minutes through the day.

Map ↗ Website

Rail

Part-Dieu & Perrache

Two main stations. Part-Dieu takes the TGVs, with Paris about two hours away. Perrache sits at the south end of the Presqu'île and is handier for Vienne and the Rhône valley.

Map ↗ Website

TCL

Metro, tram & funicular

Four metro lines, seven tram lines, buses and two funiculars up the Fourvière hill, all on one network. A single TCL ticket costs 2.10 euros and covers an hour of connections, the funicular included.

↗ Website

Local

Taxis & Vélo’v

Taxis rank at both stations and on Bellecour. Vélo’v, the city bike scheme launched in 2005, has stands across the centre and is the quickest way along the two quays.

↗ Website

Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Lyon, France

The classics to order before you leave.

Quenelle de brochet

A pike dumpling poached and baked, served under a crayfish sauce called Nantua.

Salade lyonnaise

Frisée, lardons and croutons under a poached egg. Lunch in one bowl.

Rosette de Lyon

Dry-cured pork sausage seasoned with garlic and wine, aged for months and sliced thin.

Cervelle de canut

Fromage blanc whipped with herbs, shallot, oil and vinegar. Named for the silk weavers, not for brains.

Tablier de sapeur

Beef tripe marinated in white wine, breaded and fried, served with sauce gribiche.

Andouillette

Coarse chitterling sausage, grilled and usually sauced with mustard. Order it knowingly.

Saint-Marcellin

A small soft cow’s-milk cheese from the Isère, ripened until it collapses on the spoon.

Tarte aux pralines

Shortcrust filled with crimson sugared almonds melted into cream. The pink in every bakery window.

Lyon fact sheet

Lyon at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.

Country

France

Region

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Population

About 520,000 (city)

Founded

43 BC, as Lugdunum

Nickname

Capital of the Gauls

Language

French

Currency

Euro (EUR)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

Calling code

+33

Airports

Lyon-Saint-Exupéry (LYS)

Power

230V, type E

Emergency

112

Ideal length

3 days

Getting around

Metro, tram & funicular

Tourism board

Official site

Interesting facts

UNESCO listed 427 hectares of Lyon in 1998, about a tenth of the city, and some 60,000 people live inside that perimeter.
Cinema was invented in the 8th arrondissement. The Lumière brothers filmed workers leaving their father's factory in 1895.
The traboules exist because of silk: covered passages let the canuts carry finished cloth across town without rain reaching it.
Lyon was founded as Lugdunum in 43 BC and became capital of the Three Gauls, which is why two Roman theatres are cut into the hillside.
The Fête des Lumières descends from a vow. On 8 December 1852 the Lyonnais put candles in their windows, and the city has lit itself since.

Headed to Lyon?

Get our one-page Lyon cheat sheet plus a fresh destination every Thursday.