City of Lyon
Lyon is the third-largest city of France, the capital of the French administrative region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Lyon is mostly known as the gastronomic epicentre of France, with one of the highest concentrations of restaurants per capita in the country. It is where *Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinematograph.
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It is located about 470 km (292 mi) southeast of Paris, 320 km (199 mi) north of Marseille.
Districts Fourvière (map), Vieux Lyon (map), Croix-Rousse (map) and a large part of Presqu’île (map) are classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Founded by the Romans, with many preserved historical areas, Lyon is the archetype of the heritage city, as recognised by UNESCO.
⇒ visiterlyon.com • Events • Flea market
All periods of Lyon’s 2,000-year history have left visible traces in the city’s architectural and cultural heritage, from Roman ruins to Renaissance palaces to contemporary skyscrapers. It never went through a major disaster (earthquake, fire, extensive bombing) or a complete redesign by urban planners. Very few cities in the world boast such diversity in their urban structure and architecture.
After Venice, the Old Lyon (wiki, map), a narrow strip along the right bank of the Saône, is the largest Renaissance area in Europe (well, it’s actually far behind Venice). Its current organization, with narrow streets mainly parallel to the river, dates back to the Middle Ages. The buildings were erected between the 15th and the 17th centuries.
The area is generally crowded in the afternoon, especially at weekends. To really enjoy its architectural beauties, the best time is therefore the morning. Around lunchtime, the streets somewhat disappear behind restaurant terraces, postcard racks and the crowd of tourists.
Traboules (wiki) are a type of secret covered passageways primarily associated with the city of Lyon. Closed at night. The traboules are a typical architectural feature of Lyon’s historical buildings. They are corridors which link two streets through a building, and usually a courtyard. Many traboules are unique architectural masterpieces, largely influenced by Italy and especially Florence.
Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls (map) ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.
The *Hôtel de Ville de Lyon (map) is the city hall of the City of Lyon and one of the largest historic buildings in the city, located between the Place des Terreaux.
Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon (map), fine arts museum housed in a former convent of the 17th century, including the Baroque chapelle Saint-Pierre. (including Tintoretto; Paolo Veronese; Nicolas Poussin; Rubens; Rembrandt; Zurbaran; Canaletto; Delacroix; Monet; Gauguin; Van Gogh; Cézanne; Matisse; Picasso; Francis Bacon…). Collections of sculptures, drawings and printings, decorative arts, Roman and Greek antiquities; the second largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in France after that of the Louvre; and a medal cabinet of 50.000 medals and coins.
MAM – Musée des Arts de la Marionnette (map), museum of the history of Lyon housed in a historic building in Vieux Lyon. Also includes a large collection of marionettes.
*Cathedral of St. John (Lyon Cathedral, map), a medieval church with architectural elements of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, also the principal religious structure in the city and the seat of the Archbishop of Lyon.
*Basilica of St-Martin-d’Ainay (map), one of the rare surviving Romanesque basilica-style churches in Lyon.
Jardin botanique de Lyon (map), included in the Parc de la Tête d’Or, is a municipal botanical garden and is open weekdays without charge. The garden was established in 1857 as a successor to earlier botanical gardens dating to 1796, and now describes itself as France’s largest municipal botanical garden.
The Saint Francis of Sales church (map) is famous for its large and unaltered *Cavaillé-Coll pipe organ, attracting audiences from around the world.
8 December each year is marked by the Festival of Lights (la Fête des lumières). This unique Lyonnaise tradition dictates that every house place candles along the outsides of all the windows to produce a spectacular effect throughout the streets.
The two main focal points of activity are typically the Basilica of Fourvière (map) which is lit up in different colours, and the Place des Terreaux (map), which hosts a different light show each year.
Of course, the Festival of Lights is a thrilling experience. However, depending on your expectations, this may not be the best time to visit the city, given the weather and the overcrowding.
Lyon has a long and chronicled culinary arts tradition. The noted food critic Curnonsky referred to the city as “the gastronomic capital of the world”. >> Lyonnaise cuisine
The bouchon is a traditional Lyonnais restaurant that serves local fare such as sausages, duck pâté or roast pork, along with local wines. Two of France’s best known wine-growing regions are located near the city: the *Beaujolais region to the north and the *Côtes du Rhône region to the south.
More recently, the *french tacos was invented in Lyon suburbs in the early 2000s and is now worldwide famous.
Also сheck оut мore info about Lyon: Wikipedia • Wikivoyage • UNESCO
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The *French Riviera (Côte d’Azur, map), in southeastern France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country, after the Parisian region. Main cities on the French Riviera include Nice (map), Antibes (map) and Cannes (map); Cap Ferrat (map) is also a popular destination.
Provence – numerous famous natural sites can be found in the region, as the Gorges du Verdon (map), the Camargue (map), the Calanques National Park (map) and the typical landscape of *Luberon.
Loire Valley – This World Heritage Site is noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Amboise (map), Angers (map), Blois (map), *Chinon (map), *Orléans (map), and Saumur (map) >> +*Châteaux of the Loire Valley)
French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (map) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions. Notable towns in the French Alps include Grenoble (map), Chamonix (map), Annecy (map) is called “the Venice of Savoie”, Chambéry (map), Évian-les-Bains (map) and Albertville (map).
Corsica – is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus. It is a popular attraction for tourists with both cultural aspects (cities *Ajaccio and *Bastia) and geographical features (Parc naturel régional de Corse, map).
Aix-en-Provence
Ajaccio
Albi
Amboise
Amiens
Angers
Angoulême
Arles
Arras
Aurillac
Autun
Auxerre
Avallon
Avignon
Bayeux
Bayonne
Beaune
Beauvais
Besançon
Béziers
Biarritz
Blois
Bordeaux
Boulogne-Billancourt
Boulogne-sur-Mer
Bourges
Brest
Caen
Calais
Cannes
Carcassonne
Chablis
Châlons-en-Champagne
Chambéry
Chamonix
Chantilly
Chartres
Château Gontier
Cherbourg-en-Cotentin
Chinon
Clermont-Ferrand
Colmar
Dieppe
Dijon
Douai
Dunkirk
Eguisheim
Épernay
Épinal
Fontainebleau
Fontenay-Le-Comte
Grenoble
Honfleur
Kaysersberg
La Baule
La Rochelle
Laon
Le Havre
Le Mans
Le Touquet
Lens
Les Sables d’Olonne
Lille
Limoges
Lorient
Lyon
Mâcon
Marseille
Mayenne
Meaux
Metz
Migennes
Montpellier
Montreuil
Mulhouse
Nancy
Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne
Nantes
Narbonne
Neuf-Brisach
Neufchâtel-Hardelot
Nevers
Nice
Nîmes
Orléans
Paray-le-Monial
Paris
Périgueux
Perpignan
Poitiers
Provins
Quiberon
Quimper
Reims
Rennes
Ribeauvillé
Riquewihr
Rouen
Saint-Brieuc
Saint-Claude
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Malo
Saint-Nazaire
Samoëns
Saulieu
Saumur
Sélestat
Semur-en-Auxois
Sens
Strasbourg
Toulon
Toulouse
Troyes
Vannes
Verdun
Versailles
Vézelay
Vitré
Vittel
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes / adm. center Lyon
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté / adm. center Dijon, Besançon
Brittany / adm. center Rennes
Centre-Val de Loire / adm. center Orléans
Corsica / adm. center Ajaccio
Île-de-France / adm. center Paris
Normandy / adm. center Caen, Rouen
Nouvelle-Aquitaine / adm. center Bordeaux
Occitanie / adm. center Toulouse
Pays de la Loire / adm. center Nantes
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur / adm. center Marseille
Alsace / adm. center Strasbourg
Champagne-Ardenne / Châlons-en-Champagne
Lorraine / adm. center Metz
Hauts-de-France
Nord-Pas-de-Calais / adm. center Lille
Picardy / adm. center Amiens
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