Where to Stay in Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

What is Lyon known for?

Lyon is known as the city at the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, northwest of the French Alps in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Rome founded it. The Roman amphitheater of Lyon and the odeon of Lyon survive from ancient Lugdunum, while the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon and the Institut Lumière, cradle of cinema, mark its later reputation for art and invention.

What are the main landmarks in Lyon?

Lyon holds landmarks from Roman Lugdunum to the birth of cinema. The amphitheater of Lyon and the odeon of Lyon stand on the western hill, gathered around the Lugdunum Musée et Théâtres and the Basilique Saint-Just de Lyon. Indoors, the museums take over.

The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, the Gadagne museums, and the Textile Arts Museum fill the peninsula, while the Institut Lumière and the Centre d'Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation keep the modern memory.

What is the history of Lyon?

Lyon began as Roman Lugdunum, founded on the hill above the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône. The amphitheater of Lyon and the odeon of Lyon survive from that founding, and the Lugdunum Musée et Théâtres gathers the record of the ancient colony. Rome set the pattern.

The western hill above the Saône stayed the city's oldest core, crowned later by the Basilique Saint-Just de Lyon. Through the centuries Lyon grew into a centre of trade and craft, its silk and textile work remembered in the Textile Arts Museum. The peninsula between the two rivers filled with the merchant houses now held by the Gadagne museums.

In the modern age the city gave cinema its start, marked by the Institut Lumière, and carried a hard wartime memory kept at the Centre d'Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation. The rivers ran through all of it.

Where is Lyon?

Lyon stands at the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, northwest of the French Alps in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. A hill rises west of the Saône. The two rivers meet on a long peninsula, with the Roman ground climbing above the western bank toward the amphitheater of Lyon.

Water and hill shape the city.

What is the climate of Lyon?

Lyon has a temperate inland climate, warmed in the valley where the Rhône and the Saône meet. Summers grow hot. The colder months bring damp and grey to the peninsula, while the hill above the Saône near the amphitheater of Lyon catches the first sun.

The two rivers hold moisture through the year.

How do you get to Lyon?

Lyon sits on the main rail and road corridors of southeast France, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes northwest of the French Alps. Fast trains reach it. The routes follow the valley where the Rhône and the Saône meet, linking the city north toward Paris and south down the Rhône, with the mountains rising to the east.

The rivers guide the approach.