Lyon itinerary for first-timers

The old town between the Saône and the hill is one of the largest Renaissance districts in Europe, built by the bankers and merchants who made Lyon rich in the 15th and 16th centuries. Rue du Boeuf, Rue Juiverie and Rue Saint-Jean are lined with pastel façades, spiral staircases and arcaded courtyards, and the traboules, passages cutting through the buildings from one street to the next, are hidden behind ordinary doors.

• Passerelle du Palais de Justice
• Rue du Boeuf
• Rue Juiverie
• Place du Change
• Rue Saint-Jean
• Cathédrale Saint-Jean

Some traboules are open to walkers during the day; push the door gently, keep your voice down and remember that people live upstairs.

South of the cathedral, the third and quietest part of Vieux Lyon was the quarter of the silk weavers before they moved up to the Croix-Rousse. Rue Saint-Georges is narrower and less polished than Rue Saint-Jean, and Quai Fulchiron gives long views along the Saône towards the Presqu'île.

• Place Édouard Commette
• Quai Fulchiron
• Rue Saint-Georges
• Place de la Trinité

Lyon began as Lugdunum, the Roman capital of Gaul, on this hillside. Its great theatre, begun around 15 BC, is carved into the slope beside a smaller odeon, and from the top rows you look over the stage to the rooftops of the whole city. In summer it is still used for concerts and performances.

• Minimes funicular station
• Great Roman theatre
• Odeon
• View from the top rows

The funicular to Minimes is usually quieter than the one to Fourvière, and its station is right by the theatre entrance.

The white basilica on top of the hill, finished in the late 19th century, is covered inside with mosaics and gold, and its terrace is the classic view of Lyon: the Saône below, the Presqu'île, the Rhône and, on clear days, the Alps on the horizon. Behind it, the Parc des Hauteurs follows the ridge along an old railway footbridge.

• Basilica interior
• Panoramic terrace
• Parc des Hauteurs

Clear mornings and late afternoons give the best chance of seeing Mont Blanc from the terrace.

Instead of the funicular, walk down: the Rosary Garden winds through roses and shady benches below the basilica, and the stepped lanes of the montées drop steeply between old walls straight into Vieux Lyon. It is the best way to feel how close the hill and the old town really are.

• Rosary Garden
• Stepped lanes into Vieux Lyon
• Views over the old town

Cross back over the Saône by the footbridge and the Presqu'île begins: the Quai des Célestins, the little Place des Célestins in front of its theatre, and a few blocks on, Place Bellecour, one of the largest open squares in Europe, with the statue of Louis XIV in the middle and the basilica floodlit on the hill behind you.

• Passerelle du Palais de Justice
• Quai des Célestins
• Place des Célestins
• Place Bellecour

The top of the Croix-Rousse feels like a small town of its own. In the 19th century it was the home of the canuts, the silk weavers, whose tall buildings had high ceilings to fit the Jacquard looms. Place de la Croix-Rousse is its centre, and the market along the Boulevard de la Croix-Rousse is one of the biggest in the city.

• Place de la Croix-Rousse
• Boulevard de la Croix-Rousse market
• Rue des Pierres Plantées viewpoint

Come in the morning, when the boulevard market is busiest; the viewpoint at the top of Rue des Pierres Plantées looks straight across to Fourvière.

Between the plateau and the Presqu'île, the slopes are a tangle of stairways, street art, small shops and passages. The Montée de la Grande-Côte drops in long flights with views over the city, and around Passage Thiaffait and Rue Pouteau the old weavers' streets are now full of studios and independent boutiques. Many of Lyon's traboules connect these steep streets.

• Montée de la Grande-Côte
• Rue Pouteau
• Passage Thiaffait
• Saint-Polycarpe church
• Place du Griffon

The video climbs the slopes from the bottom; going down is much easier on the legs, so start from the plateau and watch it in reverse order.

At the foot of the slopes, Place des Terreaux is framed by the Hôtel de Ville and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, with the Bartholdi fountain and its galloping horses in the middle. From there Rue de la République, the grand 19th-century shopping street of the Presqu'île, runs south past the Palais de la Bourse to Place des Cordeliers.

• Place des Terreaux
• Hôtel de Ville
• Bartholdi fountain
• Rue de la République
• Palais de la Bourse

The Rhône is wider and faster than the Saône, and its quays are where Lyon goes out in the evening. Cross the Pont Lafayette to the left bank, walk down past the Préfecture and come back over the Pont Wilson as the lights come on, finishing through Place de la République at Place Bellecour.

• Quai Jules Courmont
• Pont Lafayette
• Préfecture du Rhône
• Pont Wilson
• Place de la République

The riverside paths on the left bank below the quays, the Berges du Rhône, are a favourite place for an evening stroll in summer.

Lyon's great park, laid out in the 19th century beside the Rhône, covers more than a hundred hectares around a large lake. It has a big rose garden, a botanic garden with glasshouses, a war memorial on an island in the lake and a free zoo, and on weekends it is where half of Lyon comes to walk, run and row.

• Enfants du Rhône gates
• The lake
• War memorial island
• Rose garden
• Zoo
• Botanic garden & greenhouses

Enter by the main gates near the Rhône, which lead straight to the lake; the rose garden is at its best from late May to early summer.

The southern tip of the Presqu'île was a district of docks, warehouses and railway yards until it was rebuilt as a new quarter of bold architecture on the water, like the orange and green cubes on the Saône. The long Quai Rambaud leads to the Musée des Confluences, a museum of science and societies in a cloud of glass and steel at the very point where the two rivers meet.

• Passerelle Florence Arthaud
• Quai Rambaud
• Orange and green cubes
• Musée des Confluences
• The meeting of the rivers

Walk to the end of the museum garden for the view of the Rhône and the Saône joining.

After dark the narrow streets between the Saône and Rue de la République fill with terraces. Rue Mercière, one of the oldest streets of the Presqu'île, is the busiest, and the lanes around Rue Tupin lead north to the lit-up Place des Terreaux and Rue Sainte-Catherine, the liveliest street at the foot of the Croix-Rousse.

• Rue Mercière
• Rue Tupin
• Place de la Comédie
• Place des Terreaux by night
• Rue Sainte-Catherine