As you probably know if you’ve been following my tips for a while now, I am originally from Lyon. Paris is just my adopted city; even though I love this city and have truly found my place and pace in the Parisian hustle and bustle, I keep a special fondness for the city where I grew up and where I did my studies. So, during the holidays and over the summer, I make a multi-day migration to Lyon every year to spend time with my family, and I take the opportunity to rediscover this city that was once familiar to me and that I enjoy strolling through again today…
Here are the few tips, visit ideas, and great addresses I’ve been able to unearth for you in Lyon (in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region) during my last stays in Lugdunum, and I regularly update this article with my discoveries. I also have another special article on great gourmet spots in Lyon where you can find a selection of restaurants, tearooms, coffee shops, and more.
Table of Contents
Practical information for getting to Lyon
How to get to Lyon from Paris?
- From Paris, it is very easy to get to Lyon by TGV (only a 2-hour journey from Gare de Lyon towards the Part Dieu station and Perrache station).
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How to get to Lyon from Corsica?
- From Corsica, you can take a direct Figari / Lyon flight with Air Corsica.
Visit ideas in Lyon
In this section, I offer a selection of visits to do during your stay in Lyon. The capital of the Gauls is quite a vast city and you won’t necessarily be able to do everything on foot, but I strongly recommend using public transport, which, if not always perfectly reliable, is at least practical. Don’t miss out on discovering the city’s different districts: Old Lyon, the Croix-Rousse slopes, Fourvière hill, the Presqu’île…
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The Lyon City Card
This card is ideal if you are visiting Lyon for a few days and want to see as much as possible. This Lyon Culture & Leisure pass is available for 24h, 48h, 72h, or 96h. It gives access to numerous museums, attractions, guided tours, cruises… and many other benefits in Lyon. You will also be able to travel freely within Lyon, as everything is included!
On the program:
- Free access to 27 museums and temporary exhibitions
- Unlimited access to the entire transport network (metro, funicular, bus, tram)
- 1 guided tour from ONLYLYON Tourism of your choice
- Many other benefits and exclusive offers to discover
Lyon City Card
Rates: 24h 29€ / 48h 39€ / 72h 49€ / 96h 59€
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Take a guided tour of the Croix-Rousse district
We took advantage of the City Card to take a group guided tour in 2021 in the Croix-Rousse district. The history of this district is linked to the textile manufacturing trades and particularly to the invention by Jacquard, at the very beginning of the 19th century, of a mechanical loom. During the tour, we visit the Maison des Canuts (see below) to discover the techniques of silk weaving. The tour also allows you to identify the typical Croix-Rousse buildings, built in the 19th century to house the Canuts (who lived and worked in the same place).
We also took advantage of the visit to “trabouler,” that is to say, to walk through the famous traboules lyonnaises (made famous for their use during the Second World War by the resistance), which allow you to connect one street to another by passing through the courtyards of buildings.
Tour taken in 2021
Guided tour “The Maison des Canuts and the Croix-Rousse slopes”
Free with the Lyon City Card
Rates: from 19 €
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Visit the Maison des Canuts
This house is emblematic of the Croix-Rousse district and allows you to discover collections related to the canuts, the silk workers of this Lyon neighborhood, in particular functional looms, as well as elements linked to the history of silk and its industry. You can see a Jacquard hand loom, like those used at the time by the canuts. It took about 5 years of apprenticeship to become a seasoned canut in weaving Lyonnais silk.
Visited in 2021
La Maison des Canuts
10 Rue d’Ivry, 69004 Lyon
Access to permanent collections from Tuesday to Friday from 10 am to 1 pm and from 2 pm to 6 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm
Rates : 2 € adult / 1 € student / free up to 11 years old
Free with the Lyon City Card
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Visit the Cinema and Miniature Museum
This museum, located in Old Lyon in a magnificent Renaissance-era building, presents both a collection centered on cinema and the largest international collection of miniature art in the Dan Ohlman gallery. You can discover faithful reproductions at 1/12th scale of our living spaces. Confusingly realistic, the impressive collection boasts over 1,000 masterpieces of patience and dexterity created by different miniature artists from all over the world. On the cinema side, you can discover a thousand original works, costumes, and iconic props that have inspired entire generations across 2,000 m² of exhibition space.
Last visit in 2021
Cinema and Miniature Museum
60 Rue Saint-Jean, 69005 Lyon
Rates: 15.90 € / 13.90 € reduced / 10.90 € child / free from 0 to 3 years old
Free with the Lyon City Card
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Visit the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon
This is obviously a very important museum in the city of Lyon, located in the heart of the Presqu’île, in the setting of a former 17th-century abbey and its cloister: the Saint-Pierre-les-Nonnains Abbey. It opened its doors very early, in 1803, and was designed from the beginning to be the first regional museum outside of Paris. It houses collections of antiquities, paintings and sculptures, graphic arts, art objects, and medals. I frequented it a lot when I was a History of Art student at Lyon II University.
During our stay in Lyon in the summer of 2024, we took the opportunity to discover the temporary exhibition “Connecting Worlds,” which was held at the museum from June 21 to September 1, 2024. The exhibition highlights the notion of universality in the world of art and museums and presents a set of artistic forms from all eras, showing that art does not really have borders or geographical limits. It was set up in collaboration with the Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art.
My tip: the cloister of the former abbey (open for free during museum opening hours) is a little haven of peace in the city and is very much appreciated by the locals; don’t hesitate to go for a stroll, even if you don’t visit the museum.
Last visit in 2024 - invitation
Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon
20, place des Terreaux, 69001 Lyon
Rates (permanent collections): 8 € full rate / 4 € between 18 and 26 years old / free for under 18s
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Visit the Gadagne museums: MHL and MAm
These two museums are housed in Old Lyon, in a Renaissance building, the Hôtel de Gadagne. This historical monument features architecture typical of the Renaissance in Lyon: a magnificent interior courtyard, spiral staircases, monumental fireplaces, a painted ceiling, and decorations from the 15th and 16th centuries.
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The MAM: Puppet Arts Museum
The Hôtel de Gadagne houses, in particular, the Puppet Arts Museum. Inside, you can discover a Guignol puppet, which is one of the oldest known. It also presents a section on the history of the city of Lyon. At the back of the building, don’t miss the museum’s hanging garden (freely and openly accessible during building opening hours from 10:30 am to 6 pm from Wednesday to Sunday), which has a lot of charm and invites tranquility.
Last visit in 2021
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The MHL: The Lyon History Museum
The complete redesign of the museum’s museography was completed in December 2023. Carried out in four stages, from 2019 to 2023, the new permanent path of this history and society museum offers 4 thematic exhibitions representing 4 ways of telling the history of Lyon:
- Portrait of Lyon, orienting oneself in the city : which provides landmarks to understand today’s city through its past and evolution, it is a good introduction to understanding the city / not to be missed, the interactive augmented model that helps you find your way in the urban space.
- Feet in the water, living with the Rhône and the Saône: which tells the tumultuous relationship of the Lyonnais with their two waterways / not to be missed, the flagship piece of this exhibition, a 16th-century dugout canoe-fishpond discovered by archaeologists in 2004 in Lyon during the Saint-Georges parking lot excavations (I remember it well because I was an archaeology student in Lyon at that time).
- What are you making, industrial and working-class Lyon: which retraces the industrial adventure of Lyon, focusing on workers’ memory / not to be missed, the part that immerses us in the history of the silk industry, which would greatly impact Lyon from the 17th century to the 19th century.
- Lyonnaises, Lyonnais! Powers and commitments in the city: which exposes the narrative of Lyon’s political history through figures of power and examples of citizen engagement / not to be missed, the mural by Olivia Paroldi on social struggles.
This new museography allows different museum audiences to adapt their visit by browsing all the exhibitions or only one or the other according to their desires and time. The museum as a whole is very interactive and offers numerous supports to listen to, to observe, or even to play with, such as films, models, audio devices, slideshows, silk collections… In short, it is a very modern museum in its museography and its approach, where you can spend hours discovering or re-discovering many aspects of the beautiful city of Lyon.
Last visit in 2023
Gadagne Museums
1 Place du Petit Collège, 69005 Lyon
Rates for both museums: 8€ / 6€ reduced / free for under 18s, job seekers, and those receiving social minimums
Free with the Lyon City Card
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Visit the Musée des Confluences in Lyon
I waited for the opening of the Musée des Confluences for a long time. Ever since I was an archaeology student in Lyon and started dreaming of working there… Failing that, I now work in the museum sector, but in Paris…
So, you can imagine I was extremely moved when I discovered this fabulous museum whose architecture in the shape of a crystal cloud has been unsettling the eyes of the Lyonnais for several months now. Every time I talk about it with my family or friends in Lyon, many questions arise from this endeavor. What is this shape? What will this museum be about? I think this vagueness surrounding this establishment comes, first and foremost, from the age of the project, which took a long time to emerge, as well as the very innovative ambition of the very essence of this place. A plural museum, at the confluence of Lyon’s two rivers, but also at the confluences of museum disciplines.
This kind of mix is quite rarely seen in the cultural world, which is often well-organized and arranges its collections by theme in specifically dedicated venues. The multiple aspects of the museum’s collections come intrinsically from the legacy of the old Guimet Natural History Museum of Lyon, collections gathered and crossed for 5 centuries already. The Musée des Confluences therefore aims to tell the great story of humanity in 4 distinct exhibitions that present the question of the origins and destiny of Man through the diversity of his cultures and civilizations, as well as his articulation with animality.
The museum also presents temporary exhibitions and started right from the opening with a cabinet of curiosities called “The Chamber of Wonders” and a thematic exhibition called “Emile Guimet’s Treasures,” which reviews the journey of this humanist Lyonnais entrepreneur. The Musée des Confluences has therefore become a place of life and meeting for the Lyonnais, who have made this new center of culture their own, because it richly deserves their visits.
Musée des Confluences
86 quai Perrache CS 30180 69002 LyonTram T1 stop Musée des Confluences
open Tuesday to Friday from 11 am to 7 pm / Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays from 10 am to 7 pm
/ late night Thursday until 10 pmAdmission Price: full price 9 € / reduced 6 € (for everyone from 5 pm) / young 18-25 years old 5 € / free for under 18s, students under 26, Lyon City Card holders, for the unemployed and beneficiaries of social minimums
Free with the Lyon City Card
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Visit the Renaud Foundation at the Fort de Vaise
During our stay in Lyon in December 2023, we visited the Renaud Foundation, housed in the Fort de Vaise, to discover their current temporary exhibition: The Factory of the Gaze, Gustave Moreau’s Lyonnais filiations. Through a scenographic path, you are immersed in the painter’s studio and in the different artists who went from students to masters, in the footsteps of Gustave Moreau. To illustrate this theme, the exhibition presents 5 artists who inspired each other and who had a master-student relationship. To return a little to this foundation, it was created in 1994 by Serge and Jean-Jacques Renaud, sons of the architect Pierre Renaud (1888-1954), a key figure on the Lyonnais artistic scene during the interwar period. The collection today gathers over 8,000 objects and artworks illustrating the history of Lyonnais arts from 1880 to the present day.
After the visit, we participated in a special holiday workshop in connection with the exhibition. It was the opportunity to make a small handmade macramé Christmas tree for the holidays, which is always very nice. For information, the Foundation offers several activities alongside the exhibitions, concerts, guided tours, workshops…
Renaud Foundation / Fort de Vaise
27 boulevard Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 690009 Lyon
Exhibition “The Factory of the Gaze, Gustave Moreau’s Lyonnais filiations”
From December 1, 2023, to February 11, 2024
Wednesday to Sunday from 2 pm to 6 pm
Rates: self-guided tours 6€ or 3€ / guided tours 8€ or 5€ / special holiday workshop-tours 9€ or 6€
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Take an unusual tour on the rooftops of the Basilica of Fourvière
This unusual visit allows you to discover the backstage of this basilica built in the 19th century at the top of Fourvière hill in tribute to the Virgin Mary, which is today one of the emblems of Lyon. During this visit, we go up to the rooftops of the basilica, and the visit allows you to have a breathtaking view of the city. Whether you are from Lyon or a tourist, it’s a visit that I really recommend you do at least once!
Unusual visit to the Basilica of Fourvière
duration: 1h30
Rates: 14 € adult / 7 € reduced / children from 5 to 18 years old 7 €
Free with the Lyon City Card
link to the booking page for this visit
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Visit the Museum of Fourvière
The Fourvière Museum (located just to the right of the basilica) is a private religious art museum managed by the Fourvière Foundation. It has existed since 1960, but reopened its doors in 2024 following several years of renovation. It offers a permanent exhibition around 2 themes: the history of the construction of the Basilica of Fourvière in the 19th century and Marian devotion (with a focus on Lyonnais specificity), with a rich collection of about 10,000 works, which is obviously not all on display, but the majority of items are rotated every 6 months. The museum is also installed in a former chapel of Jesuit teachers, who left France in 1880.
In addition, the museum offers a major temporary exhibition every year, and in 2025 during our visit, we were able to discover, with the museum’s curator M. Berthod, the exhibition on Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The exhibition highlights an unknown aspect of the work of the famous 19th-century architect passionate about the Middle Ages: the creation of goldsmithing and liturgical furniture.
You can notably admire remarkable liturgical pieces that come from the Treasure of Notre-Dame de Paris (some of which I had already had the chance to see in Paris during the exhibition on the Treasure of Notre-Dame held in 2023/2024 at the Louvre Museum). The exhibition is held at the Museum of Fourvière until November 2, 2025.
Visited in 2025 - Invitation
Museum of Fourvière
7-8 Place de Fourvière, 69005 Lyon
Exhibition “The unknown treasures of Viollet-le-Duc” from June 28 to November 2, 2025
Rates: 10 € / 6 € reduced / free under 5 years old
The tip: free late-night openings on the last Monday of the month from 6 pm to 8 pm (August 25, September 29, and October 27)
What to do in Lyon? Some outing ideas
In this section, I offer a small selection of outing ideas to do in Lyon and shows to see if you are passing through the city (or even if you live there!).
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Where to go see improvisation shows in Lyon? L’Improvidence
L’Improvidence is a Lyonnais café-theater entirely dedicated to improvisation that just opened a few months ago in the Fosse aux Ours district. In this space, an entire community of players shares the stage, their experience, their fame, their know-how, and their shared passion. The program is rich, like the discipline itself, because an improv show is also a privileged moment to step back and look at a theme, sometimes universal, sometimes painful, and often very funny.
For my part, it made for a relaxing family outing; we laughed out loud, had a great time, and I really think we’ll do it again on my next visit to Lyon. I had actually discovered this discipline, unfortunately often little-known, thanks to one of my colleagues who took me to see an improvisation match in Paris between the Ligue d’Impro Française and the actors of Hero Corp (a series by Simon Astier, of which I am an absolute fan).
Plus, the prices aren’t excessive at all (between 6 and 16 € per ticket), so frankly, it’s an experience I warmly encourage you to have; it’s bound to be good for the soul, I promise!
New Year’s Eve Tip: funny idea for New Year’s Eve, L’Improvidence organizes a party on December 31st at 8:30 pm with a 2-hour “Live” show by the Bandits Manchots, the only 100% improvised concert with appetizers and champagne during the intermission.
Tested in 2015
L’Improvidence
6 rue Chaponnay 69003 Lyon
Where to stay in Lyon?
As usual, you will find below my selection of great accommodation addresses in Lyon that we have had the opportunity to test during our various stays with my favorite photographer. Since my parents live in Lyon and I lived there myself, I admit I know very few (or none at all) hotel addresses in my hometown. Yet, when I go back, I sometimes have the opportunity to test establishments and then share these discoveries here.
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Hôtel Lyon Métropole Résidence & Spa
This 4-star hotel belonging to the Arteloge group is located on the banks of the Saône in a very pleasant green setting. It opened its doors in June 1983, but recently benefited from an expansion of its spa, which reopened in its current form in January 2022. It settled in the 80s in place of the Club de sport Lyon, which enjoyed an Olympic-size swimming pool (which the hotel has kept). Since 2012, the establishment has also owned another building offering apartments and studios for rent. In total, the hotel currently has 174 rooms in classic hotel style and also in apartment-hotel style.
During this stay, we stayed in the hotel section of the establishment, in a prestige room with a balcony overlooking the Olympic pool. Our room was spacious and quiet, and the bedding was of very good quality.
Tested in 2023
Hôtel Lyon Métropole Résidence & Spa
85 quai Joseph Gillet, 69004 Lyon
Spa & Relaxation Offer: one night for 2 people, including: breakfast, spa access, and parking from 191€/night
Family Offer: one night for 2 adults and 2 children, including: breakfasts, spa access, Kids Club, and parking from 299€/night
Epicurean Escape Package: one night for 2 people in a comfort room, breakfasts, spa access, and dinner for 2 at the Brasserie Lyon Plage for 285€ for 2 people
The tip: This hotel, which has been in existence since 1983, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and offers an exclusive promo code for the occasion, which allows you to get -10% on the Spa & Relaxation offers and the family offer for one or two-night stays (valid until 27/08/2023) FESTIVE2023
Good to know: a parking lot is available to customers
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The Lyon Plage Spa
Inaugurated in January 2022 in its new version, this spa is impressive in its size: 8,000 m² of well-being and fitness facilities (making it the largest intra-muros spa in France!). This is a major attraction of the establishment, which aims to be a well-being destination in its own right. The Spa is primarily accessible to hotel guests (who have booked a stay with spa access), as well as spa members. For more tranquility, some facilities are reserved for people over 16, while others are open to all. There is also an area entirely reserved for women.
A beauty institute is also present on site, with a menu of treatments and massages (in partnership with the brands Cinq Mondes, Shiseido, and LPG), as well as an exclusive Iyashi space, offering treatments characterized by water rejuvenation.
On the program: an outdoor Olympic swimming pool (open from May to October), an open-air hydromassage circuit, two indoor pools, a hot tub, as well as three relaxation zones composed of saunas, hammams, sanariums, infrared armchairs, ice fountains, hot/cold foot baths, the grotto, a group class room, a biking room, private coaching spaces, a Kids Club (which allows you to have your children looked after for 2 hours a day).
Spa Lyon Plage
For exteriors, it is necessary to combine with a package including spa access + treatments or spa + meals at the brasserie
Package deal with hotel + spa access
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The Brasserie Lyon Plage
This brasserie, designed by architect Alain Varo, is located along the hotel’s Olympic pool with a very pleasant terrace where we dined during our stay at the hotel. In the kitchen, we find chef Georges Desriaux and his second, Olivier Maindroult, who offer simple cuisine with Mediterranean accents, prepared with seasonal products.
We tasted : sardine and eggplant tartines with candied lemon with sucrine heart (18 €); salmon tartare with Thai sauce (18 €); whole sea bream a la plancha, vierge sauce (31 €); pan-seared lamb chops, meat juice with thyme and potatoes with parsley (32 €); cocktails 15 €; wine by the glass between 6.50 € and 9 €.
Brasserie Lyon Plage
continuous service 7 days a week from 12 pm to 10:30 pm
Gourmet Stopover Package: meal for 2 people (starter + main course + dessert) and food & wine pairing for 90 € for 2 people
Prices : starters between 16€ and 18€ / main courses between 17€ and 32€ / desserts between 9€ and 12€ / starter, main, and dessert menu for 29.50 €
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The Slo Living Hostel of Lyon
In 2014, I had the opportunity to visit this charming youth hostel with modern and friendly design. Located near the Saxe Gambetta metro station, it opened in June 2014 and offers both a beautiful place to stay (the decor even seduced the Pinterest team or the Etsy team, who came to organize workshops there) and a nice place in Lyon to go out, because it is also a wine bar for locals and guests in the evening. The hostel even won the UNIFA prize at the Equip’hotel trade show and the title of Best Hostel in France at the 2016 HOSCARS.
The little extra: a very charming interior courtyard really makes you want to come and enjoy the place when the weather is nice.
Slo Living Hostel
5 rue Bonnefoi 69003 LyonPrices: from 20 € per night in an 8-bed dormitory and 75 or 85 € in a double bed room + 9 €/person for breakfast based on local products
Find all my articles on the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region below:
⇒ All my articles on the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region
⇒ All my articles on Lyon
MY ARTICLES ON LYON
⇒ The Nuits Sonores
⇒ Food Tour and great spots in Lyon
⇒ My Lyonnais tips
Photo credits: Mademoiselle Bon Plan, Nicolas Diolez and Musée des Confluences Photos are not royalty-free; permission from the photographer is required before any use
