Best of Lyons: Find must-see tourist attractions and things to do in Lyons, Colorado. Book your tickets online for the top things to do in Lyon, France on Tripadvisor: See 100,234 traveller reviews and photos of Lyon tourist attractions. Coq au vin is also a tradition here, as is Lyonnaise potatoes, which are sliced and pan-fried with onions and parsley.
Travelers favorites include #1 Theatres Romains de Fourvière, #2 Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière and more. A little way north of the centre is one of the largest urban parks in the country, …
We have reviews of the best places to see in Lyons.
This small, intimate community is known as the Double Gateway to the Rockies for its dual highways that take you up the North and South St. Vrain Canyons to Rocky Mountain National Park (just 20 miles west) and beyond.
Find what to do today, this weekend, or in July.
It’s the city of the chef, Paul Bocuse, revered as a god of French cuisine.You can set foot in one of the largest renaissance old quarters in Europe.In the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries Lyon’s silk industry was thriving, and rich merchant families from across France, Flanders, Germany and Italy settled in the city.They built sumptuous homes, in the gothic, Italian renaissance and French renaissance styles, and there are still 300 of these remaining in the districts of Saint-Jean, Saint-Georges and Saint-Paules.During the 16th century it was estimated that there were 180,000 looms in the city, and you can see the resourceful ways this industry combined with the fabric of the city in Vieux Lyon’s characteristic traboules.In Vieux Lyon and La Croix-Rousse Saône are an architectural feature unique to this city: Traboules are delightful renaissance passageways, some 40 of which are open to the public, running beneath buildings in the direction of the Saône River.They gave the city’s silk workers direct access to riverbank, making it quick and easy to transport textiles, while also offering shelter from the elements.Nearly all of these passageways are part of residential properties, so it’s a good idea to go quietly.The best place to start your adventure is around Quai Fulchiron Rolland and Rue des Trois Maries.This magnificent church, ever visible on the Fourvière hill to west of the city is one of a series of iconic hill-top churches built in major French cities in the late-19th century.The basilica is in the oldest part of the city, Lyon’s pilgrimage site and where several Roman sites have been discovered.Go inside to see the extravagant interiors and the Museum of Sacred Art, and to ascend the north tower for one of Lyon’s best photo ops.The church is the focus for the famous Fête des Lumières, which takes place at the start of December every year.This is in praise of the Virgin Mary, to whom Fourvière is dedicated, for protecting the city from the bubonic plague in the 17th century.A little way north of the centre is one of the largest urban parks in the country, with a zoo and France’s foremost botanical garden within its boundaries.If you’re around in spring then the international rose garden should be one of your first ports of call in the city.The botanical attractions are spectacular too, with more than 20,000 plant varieties and the most graceful 19th-century greenhouses you could hope to see, thick with the scent of chlorophyll.For families with kids the park is a must-do, thank to the African Plain, with zebras, lions and giraffes, and the expansive lake for epic pedal-boating voyages in summer!A finger of land between the Rhône and Saône, Presqu’île was man-made by a humungous 18th-century urban engineering project, draining marshes and connecting what was once an island with dry land.It’s where most things “happen” in the city, a district of glorious 19th-century architecture, wide plazas, shops, cultural institutions, restaurants, cafes, bars and nightclubs.Lyon’s opera house and city hall are located here, while if you’re peckish Rue Mercière is basically one long line of superb restaurants.If you’re here for the shopping, start at the pedestrianised Rue de la République where all the high-street brands await.Housed in a former abbey from the 1600s, the Musée des Beaux-Arts is France’s largest fine art museum after the Louvre in Paris.There are 70 rooms here, with paintings from the 1300s to the 1900s, sculpture and displays of both Egyptian and Oriental art.You don’t need more than a passing knowledge to be impressed by the wealth of famous French and European artists on show: Degas, van Gogh, Renoir, Cézanne, El Greco, Canaletto, Picasso, Max Ernst and Francis Bacon, and that’s just an overview.The Antiquities department is a trove of some 600 Ancient Egyptian artefacts, including reliefs, busts, statuettes and sarcophagi, as well as monumental gates recovered from the Medamud temple.This monument is also high on the left bank of the Saône River.And 2,000 years after it was built it is still a performance venue during the Nuits de Fourvière drama festival every June and July.At its peak it would have held 10,000 spectators, but only the middle and lower terraces of the cavea remain.Where the seating has been lost though, you can see the fascinating substructure of the cavea, which continues far up the hillside.The theatre was rediscovered in the late-19th century and restored over the next 40 years.Artefacts found here and at the neighbouring Odeon are displayed at the Gallo-Roman museum, listed below.If Fourvière’s extensive Roman ruins leave you thirsty for more ancient history, this modern museum is on site to give you some background.The building deserves a mention, as it’s partly underground and has been dug from the hillside next to the roman theatre.Futuristic, bunker-like galleries are arranged around a spiralling concrete ramp.There’s a lot to get through at the museum, but one piece that you need to see is the Circus Games Mosaic, dating to the 2nd century and depicting a chariot race with staggering technical skill.There’s also the Gauilish Coligny Calendar, and the Lyon Tablet, transcribing a speech made by the Roman Emperor Claudius in the 1st century.The city’s fabulous cathedral is a mostly gothic construction built between the 12th and 15th centuries.The majority of the original stained-glass windows are still here and date to the 1300s.They had been dismantled and packed away during the Second World War to save them from bomb damage.The most captivating are the north, south and west roses, as well as the apse’s lancet.The astronomical clock inside is nine metres tall and was installed in the 1300s.Under the main clock-face is an astrolabe, added in the 1600s, that can show the position of the earth, sun and moon.Above it are automated figures that put on a little show when the chimes are rung on the hour.Anybody who goes to the cinema should be excited to pay homage to the Lumière brothers, who are held as the fathers of the movie-making art.The museum was set up by a descendant of Louis Lumière, who, working with August, helped invent the cinematograph, the first motion picture camera and projector.They also made more than a thousand films together, shown at the world’s first cinemas.The attraction is in Villa Lumière, a lovely art nouveau mansion built by the brothers’ father in 1899.
Andouilette, a sausage made from tripe, or gras double, tripe cooked with onions.Don’t worry; it’s not all tripe!
See a full list of things to do during your stay at WeeCasa in Lyons. Area recreation includes mountain biking, hiking, camping, fly fishing, climbing and excellent class II-V whitewater kayaking.