Lyon: top attractions & road trip guide
Lyon is France's third-largest city, set at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers in southeastern France. Long regarded as the country's culinary capital, it pairs Renaissance architecture in Vieux Lyon, a UNESCO World Heritage quarter, with a dense network of hidden passageways called traboules, once used by the city's silk workers to move goods through the rain.
On a road trip, Lyon sits at a natural crossroads between Paris and the Mediterranean coast or the Alps, making it a convenient overnight stop along the A6/A7 corridor. The surrounding countryside opens onto the Beaujolais vineyards just north of the city and the Rhône valley's wine routes stretching south toward Provence.
Top attractions
Vieux Lyon
A UNESCO World Heritage Renaissance quarter of narrow lanes, courtyards, and hidden traboule passageways beneath Fourvière hill.
Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière
A 19th-century basilica crowning Fourvière hill, offering panoramic views over Lyon and the surrounding rivers.
Presqu'île
The peninsula between the Rhône and Saône, home to Place des Terreaux, the Hôtel de Ville, and the opera house.
Traboules
Hidden passageways linking streets and courtyards, historically used by Lyon's silk workers, the canuts, to move goods discreetly.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
One of France's largest fine-art museums outside Paris, housed in a former abbey on Place des Terreaux.
Plan your route with EuroDrive Scout →