Lyon is a city where two rivers converge, where food, art and cinema flourish side by side, and where history and modern life intertwine at every corner. A city that belongs in pictures.
My wife, Nataliya, and I set out to explore Lyon for the first time, expecting fine dining and historic charm. What we discovered was a city that tells its story through winding passageways, painted walls, ancient stones and cinema.
Two Rivers Flow Through It
The Rhône and Saône carve their way through Lyon, their banks alive with parks, promenades and bridges.
Walking along the riverside, we crossed from medieval streets to modern plazas, pausing at the graceful Pont de la Guillotière, Lyon’s oldest bridge, and the contemporary Passerelle du Palais-de-Justice.
Cyclists zipped past, children played on carousels and couples lingered on benches, giving the city a vibrant yet laid-back rhythm. The two rivers give Lyon a sense of pulse, movement and connection.
Place Bellecour, Lyon’s Heartbeat
Our exploration began at Place Bellecour, one of Europe’s largest open squares at 312 by 200 meters. The equestrian statue of Louis XIV towers above the plaza, surrounded by fountains, cafés, and clusters of locals and visitors.
In the square’s tourist office, we picked up our Lyon City Passes, an invaluable key to the city’s museums and monuments, most of them within an easy walk.
Secret Passageways
Exploring Lyon’s famed traboules, the hidden passageways threading through buildings, felt like stepping into another time. First built in the fourth century to connect homes to the river, they later became vital for silk merchants, shielding their wares from the weather.
During World War II, the French Resistance used these twisting corridors to evade German patrols.
Dim staircases, Renaissance courtyards, and unexpected exits kept us guessing: we weren’t sure whether we’d emerge onto a bustling boulevard or a quiet cobbled alley.
Churches and Views
High above the city towered the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. Its blend of Romanesque and Byzantine design, coupled with mosaics that glittered gold inside, gave the impression of a palace as much as a church.
From its terrace, we took in sweeping views of the city, the red-tiled rooftops spreading out in every direction, framed by the rivers.
Back in the old quarter, the Cathédrale Saint-Jean Baptiste stood in Gothic splendor, its astronomical clock, a marvel of the 1300s, still keeping celestial time.
Along our way, we also slipped into smaller churches, each offering a moment of quiet amid the bustle.
A Fresco of the Famous
Turning a corner in the Presqu’île district, we were greeted by residents old and new — then we realized they were all two dimensional!
The Fresque des Lyonnais, a massive trompe-l’œil (deceive the eye) mural, depicts Lyon’s most celebrated figures: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his Little Prince, Chef Paul Bocuse, the Lumière brothers, and dozens more.
The lifelike windows and doorways trick the eye, while the gathering of icons brings past and present together on one wall. The mural is a fusion of history, art and imagination.
Roman Remnants
The Roman theater at Fourvière, built in the first century, still hosts modern-day concerts and shows. Empty during our visit, its semicircle of seating seemed alive with echoes of past performances.
Nearby, a tower — Lyon’s answer to the Eiffel, though one-third the size — rises as the city’s highest point, visible from nearly every district.
The Lumière Legacy
Cinema was born here in Lyon, thanks to Auguste and Louis Lumière. The former home of these visionary brothers, now the Institut Lumière, honors their work with a museum dedicated to the first moving pictures.
We examined early cameras, learned how their Cinématographe forever changed storytelling, and watched their famous film “L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat.”
Legend has it that audiences once screamed and ran from the theater as the oncoming train sped toward them. Standing in that museum, it was easy to imagine the spark that launched an artistic form of storytelling.
Miniatures and Movies
Cinema’s presence lingers throughout Lyon, especially at the Musée Cinéma et Miniature in Vieux Lyon. Inside a Renaissance building, the museum celebrates both big-screen wonders and painstakingly crafted miniatures.
Movie props filled room after room from classic films and recent ones — everything from gremlins and ghostbusting equipment to aliens and relics that Indiana Jones would agree belong in a museum.
The miniature exhibits, in particular, mesmerized us. One room held a perfect Parisian apartment, complete with tiny croissants cooling on the counter. Another depicted a silk workshop, looms and threads recreated in minuscule perfection.
There were markets, theaters and back-alley courtyards so detailed that we felt like giants peering into living worlds. The play of light and shadow made the scenes seem inhabited, as though life would resume the moment we turned away.
Puppets of Lyon
Nearby, the Musée Gadagne revealed a different side of Lyon’s culture: puppetry. Its star remains Guignol, the trickster puppet born here in the early 19th century.
Once a vehicle for working-class humor and satire, Guignol remains beloved today. We watched him come to life in a short performance, his wooden face expressive enough to keep children and adults alike laughing.
Rows of carved marionettes, some centuries old, looked on from glass cases, and we wondered whether one or two of these could be at home in the cinema museum.
Squares and Fountains
From puppets, we walked to Place des Terreaux, anchored by the Bartholdi Fountain. Four rearing horses, sculpted by the creator of the Statue of Liberty, surged forward in a chariot of rivers.
Water poured around them, the energy captured in bronze as fluid as the fountain itself. Children splashed at its edges while office workers paused on benches, making this not just a monument but part of daily life.
Feasting in the Gastronomic Capital
Of course, no visit to Lyon is complete without tasting it. We sampled quenelles de brochet in a rich crayfish sauce, saucisson brioché baked in brioche, and the bright-pink tarte à la praline. Each dish reinforced why Lyon is considered France’s gastronomic capital.
Even when we could eat no more, we shopped for pastries to take with us — because leaving Lyon without a sweet souvenir felt impossible.
Musée des Confluences
At the tip of the city, where Rhône and Saône meet, rises the futuristic Musée des Confluences. Shaped like a gleaming spaceship, its glass and steel exterior contrasts with Lyon’s older architecture. Inside, we journeyed from the birth of the universe to the span of human cultures: samurai armor, Andean textiles, early human fossils.
In the museum café, with espresso in hand, we gazed out at the merging rivers. It seemed a fitting symbol for Lyon itself — where past and future, tradition and innovation, meet and flow together.
Eric D. Goodman is author of seven books and more than 100 published short stories, articles and travel stories. His latest, the bestselling “Faraway Tables,” is a book of travel-centric poetry.
