Book a Flight to Lyon from €86

Vieux Lyon: on the banks of the River Saône, Old Lyon is the largest renaissance quarter in Europe after Venice and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A walk through the cobbled streets lined with colourful old buildings is a journey back to the 15th and 16th centuries. Visit Lyon Cathedral, dedicated to St John the Baptist, where Marie de Medici was married to King Henry the IV and Napoleon and Josephine attended mass, and then explore the picturesque traboules. These narrow passageways that link two parallel streets by passing through houses and interior courtyards, twisting staircases and arches, are the most characteristic architectural element of the old town. 

Fourvière Hill: take the funicular from Old Lyon up to the “hill that prays”, in the western part of the city, so named because of the church on its summit. The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, with its intricate embellished façade, was founded in 1872 to thank the Virgin Mary for saving the city from the Prussian forces marching on it. The observatory tower offers a stunning 360ο view of the city.
Address: Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Place de Fourvière, 0033 478251301
 
Croix-Rousse Quarter: also in the western part of the city, is known as “the hill that works” because in the 19th century it employed 30,000 workers in the traditional silk weaving workshops, making Lyon the silk capital of the world. Enjoy the small town atmosphere, with the picturesque streets and houses with high-ceilinged attics to accommodate the looms on which the costly silks were woven. To avoid getting lost in the labyrinthine traboules, get a map from the tourist bureau or download the app. The narrow passageways were used as shortcuts by silk workers who had to carry heavy bolts of fabric on their backs.  

Lyon Fine Arts Museum: housed in the elegant Palais Saint-Pierre, a former 17th century Abbey with an impressive façade, the museum is home to the largest art collection outside the Louvre. Egyptian antiquities, Far Eastern art, coins and a vast array of paintings and sculptures dating from the 14th to the 20th century by artists such as Veronese and Canaletto, El Greco, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Rubens, Delacroix and many more.
Address: 20 place des Terreaux, 0033 4 72101752, www.mba-lyon.fr/

Institut Lumière: in 1894, two curious Lyonnais brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière patented the cinematograph and made the first motion picture ever, which they called, Workers Leaving the
Lumière Factory in Lyon. The rest is cinematic history! Visit the Institut Lumière, housed in the brother’s lovely château and through artefacts and excerpts of films discover the history of the people who invented motion picture. An exciting journey through the 120 years of filmmaking history, with tributes to directors and film stars, and screenings of milestone movies. 
Address: 25 rue du 1er Film place Ambroise Courtois, 0033 4781895, www.institut-lumiere.org/

Musée des Confluences: a new entry on the city’s museum map, this innovative museum, which was inaugurated in December 2014, is a reason in itself to fly to Lyon! Built at the confluence of the city’s two rivers, the new museum aims, as indicated by its name, to bring science and art together and stimulate a dialogue between. An enormous number of exhibits (approximately 2.2 million) from prehistoric times to the present is housed in the Crystal Cloud, the avant-garde architectural masterpiece of glass and steel that invites visitors on a unique quest for learning. 
Address: 86 quai Perrache, 0033 428381190, www.museedesconfluences.fr/

Centre d'Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation: located in the old Gestapo headquarters, the museum presents the history of the French Resistance and life under the Nazis in Lyon through documents and photographs from WWII. 
Address: 14 avenue Berthelot, 0033 478722311, www.chrd.lyon.fr/

In the shadow of the Tour Oxygène the Part-Dieu shopping mall with its 260 shops is a shopping paradise. Visit the Designers’ Village (Le Village des Créateurs) where the latest fashion trends in clothing, jewellery and design are presented by designers exclusively from the Rhône-Alpes region. The concept stores are located inside the Passage Thiaffait and the entrance is on rue René Leynaud 19.

Croix-Rousse Hill is home to traditional silk weaving workshops that are still in operation and where you can buy jacquard and brocade fabrics, handmade ties, elegant silk scarves and shawls. 
On Sunday morning, city residents go shopping to the Puces du Canal flea market in the Villeurbanne quarter. The city is famous for its antique shops, while every October 1st the hunt for old treasures turns into Hollywood extravaganza: more than 100 antique shops stay open all night and lay out their wares on a red carpet in the middle of the central street of the Auguste Comte quartier!

Welcome to France’s gastronomic capital. Lyon is famous for its cheeses and charcuterie, and a nouvelle cuisine characterised by freshness and pureness of flavour. The famous cuisine of a city that is said to have the most restaurants per square meter in the world is due not only to the skill of its imaginative chefs but also to the wealth of top class ingredients, products of the region’s special microclimate.

Food lovers will love the Halles central market and the Saint-Antoine open-air market. Sample some of the famous local cheeses, such the Saint-Marcellin, the white wine-ripened rigotte, the chevrotin goat cheese or the fresh herb-flavoured cervelle de canut. The city’s tradition in charcuterie goes back to Roman times, when Lyon sausage was served at Caesar’s banquets. Its chocolateries are equally legendary, and are more reminiscent of jewellery stores, with truffles and macaroons displayed in the windows like precious stones. The city is also famous for its bread; take a bit of crusty baguette or a soft brioche, add a little local cheese and sausage, and you have the perfect accompaniment to a glass of local Beaujolais or Bourgogne at the traditional brasseries. 

Lyon’s nightlife has something for everyone: wild disco nights, exotic Latin clubs, chic evenings with piano music at the classy wine bars around Bellecour Square, and river bank night clubs.

The city’s calendar is full of theme happenings and extravaganzas.

• Festival of Lights For four nights every December, millions of spotlights illuminate churches, squares, emblematic downtown landmarks, riverbanks, even the traboules, creating giant, colourful tableaus. A supernatural, ethereal Little Prince emerges from the Place des Terreaux, while Van Gogh’s Sunflowers are reproduced on the square’s buildings by thousands of energy-efficient LED spots. The all-night spectacle is accompanied by musical events and audio effects.
• Fourvière Nights Magical July nights with concerts, theatre and dance performances under the starry sky on the stage of the city’s two Roman theatres. These ancient monuments are Lyon’s heritage from the time when the city was still a small Gaulish town called Lugdunum. 
• Lyon Biennale Artists from all over the world present new trends in art, sculpture, photography and multimedia, at the festival organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art (ΜΑC), from the middle of September till the end of the December. 
• Quais du Polar International Crime Fiction Festival Masters of noir from all over the world throng to the three-day festival in March that includes book readings, screenings of crime fiction movies at the Institut Lumière, serial killer theme nights, and mass investigations of crimes specially designed for the occasion.

Getting to and from the airport in Lyon

Aegean Airlines operates through Saint-Exupéry International Airport, 25 km east of Lyon. The rapidly developing airport with its impressive dome features a large variety of shops, restaurants and cafés, as well as banks, foreign exchange counters, post office, childcare facilities, pharmacy, surgery and free Wi-Fi.

The Rhônexpress tram will whisk you from the airport to the downtown Lyon Part-Dieu station in half an hour. Alternatively, you can take a Go Airport bus or city busses 44 and 46, which make many stops in the city. If you choose to go by taxi, keep in mind that the fare is approximately 40-50 euros and that many taxis accept credit cards.