City of Lyon

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 *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).

TCL | Journey planner – Lyon’s public transportation system is regarded as one of the most efficient in the country.

⇒ Transport & Transfers (lyon-france.com) • Getting to France (uk.france.fr)

Lyon has a public bicycle service called Vélo’v which allows travellers, after registering a credit card, to pick up, and drop cycles to and from over 300 points around the city. A map of cycling routes is available online.