Although Lyon is the second largest city in France, it feels like 20 times smaller than Paris. It definitely felt way less touristy and reminded me a lot of Prague, with the smaller cobblestone streets and red rooftops. It was a lot cheaper as well!
HOW LONG SHOULD YOU STAY IN LYON?
Lyon felt very small. I’m not sure if I just didn’t research it enough, but I wasn’t finding a ton to do, so I think 2 full days is perfect!
WHERE SHOULD YOU STAY IN LYON?
I would stay on the peninsula between the rivers. Our Airbnb was there and everything was super walkable! Below is a map of everywhere we went, so you can see that this location made sense for us. If most of the things you want to do aren’t near here, then stay closer to where your attractions are.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN LYON
We took both the bus and the metro in Lyon. They both accepted Apple Pay/tap credit card at the station/on the bus. The metro was clean and not very crowded.
IMPORTANT FRENCH VOCABULARY:
English was less common in Lyon than Paris, but you’d still get by in restaurants.
- Anglais = English language
- La note = the bill at a restaurant
- La carte = menu at a restaurant
- Le ticket = the receipt at a store
- Les toilettes = the bathroom
- Carte banquaire (abbreviated to C.B.) = credit card, can have a minimum purchase amount to use at small convenience stores, but not usually at bakeries when you’re buying a croissant
- Carafe d’eau = carafe of tap water for the table
- L’eau plat = flat water, non-sparkling
- L’eau gazeuse = sparkling water
DAY 1: FRIDAY, JUNE 2
Taking the train from Paris to Lyon
I booked these tickets in advance on a website called trainline.com, which is like Google Flights, but for trains. It will show you the different trains available from multiple train companies (SNCF, Ouigo, inOui, etc.) throughout the day, so this was a convenient way to find a train that fit our schedule. I didn’t check, but it might be cheaper to book directly through the train company.
Taking the train is extremely affordable and convenient in Europe. From my experience while studying abroad in college and during this trip, all trains have been clean, on time, and there has been plenty of space to store luggage. However, do note that sometimes the trains stop running when workers go on strike, which is more common than not in France.
My sister and I left our Airbnb in the 9th arrondissement at 10:40am and arrived at Gare de Lyon around 30 minutes later. We grabbed lunch in the station. There were plenty of good options for baguette sandwiches and a McDonald’s, which looked very popular. Our train was scheduled for 12:24pm, and the thing about French trains is that it doesn’t really matter how early you get there (when traveling within France, not applicable to Eurostar going from London to Paris). The trains only arrive at the station like 15 minutes before their scheduled departure time, so if you get there an hour early, you’re going to just be waiting at the station for a while. Better safe than sorry in my book, but I think we could’ve gotten there later.
When getting on the train, double-check the car # and your seat #. For whatever reason, this train’s cars were not in numerical order, so we assumed we were getting in car #4 since it was the one after #5, but we were wrong and had to run to the other end of the train when we got booted by the people who actually booked the seats we accidentally sat in. This is a common mistake, and we were on the other end of this situation on another train on our trip.
We arrived in Lyon two hours later and figured out how to take the bus to our Airbnb. This one had an elevator to the 5th floor, so that was fab for my aching knees. We had trouble unlocking the door, but we did make it in.
After checking into the Airbnb and leaving our bags, we walked to the nearby Place des Terreaux and saw the Bartholdi Fountain. It was a small square that reminded me of Brussels. Next, we went into Le Bal des Ardents bookstore, which was pretty big, but there was just no room in my suitcase for more books.
I was feeling snacky, so I got a strawberry pastry from a bakery called Chez Gregoire. We took it to go and ate it by the Saône River.
Next, we passed by a tall mural on the side of a building called la Bibliothèque de la Cité. Lyon has a few frescoes, but this is the only one we ended up seeing during the trip.
Sarah got a smoothie from a Vietnamese restaurant called Chez Vay. Then, we went into a church, Église Saint-Nizier de Lyon. It was free and not very touristy, with only one other person inside. It was the hottest day of the trip, and it was dark and cold inside the church, so we sat in the pews for a bit to cool off.
The next stop was Place des Jacobins, which was a small, beautiful square with a pretty fountain. It’s within the city’s UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nearby, there were a ton of stores (Louis Vuitton, Longchamp, Lacoste, etc.), and this was where we saw the most tourists, which was still nothing compared to London and Paris. If you want to go shopping, this is the area to be in. We walked down Passage de l’Argue, which was a little covered sidestreet with several shops.
Place des Jacobins was close to Place Bellecour, which was a much bigger, empty open space. They were setting up some sort of street festival for the next day.
We walked across a bridge over the other river, the Rhône. This part of the city was even quieter with less tourists. It was definitely the more residential part of town with only locals. We sat on a bench, walked around a little, and went to a grocery store for some water to kill time before dinner.
Lyon is known for its gastronomy, so I had researched some “bouchons,” restaurants serving local Lyonnais food, often heavy on meat. I made a 7pm reservation at Daniel et Denise Créqui, which is a Michelin Guide restaurant. I think they opened at 7pm and we were one of the first parties to be seated. I believe there were a couple of locations, but the Créqui one looked the most traditional from the photos I saw online. I loved the red checkered tablecloth and the cozy aesthetic inside. From where I was sitting, I had a view of the cooks in the kitchen who were wearing those tall white chef hats. We were in good foodie company. There was an older couple at the table next to us and the man was taking photos of all his food #relatable.
Honestly, most of the menu sounded a little out there for me with veal’s head, calf’s brain, and kidney casserole. They’re known for their foie gras, but we skipped appetizers and just got entrees. Sarah ordered the beef ribs and I ordered the quenelle, a fish dumpling. The prices weren’t terrible, but what we didn’t know is that all dishes came with sides – a pan of golden fried potatoes and penne pasta with the richest creamy bechamel sauce I’ve ever had. For dessert, we got French brioche toast with praline spread.
It was really windy on our walk back to the Airbnb, and it looked like it was going to rain. We stopped at a corner store for some water and Oranginas and got back around 9pm.
DAY 2: SATURDAY, JUNE 3
It was my birthday! I didn’t have that much planned, but we started the day at 10am at a nearby bakery called Au Pain des Traboules and picked up a madeleine for breakfast. Then, we took the bus to a big park called Parc de la Tête d’Or. The buses don’t come that often, so we had to wait like 20 minutes at the bus stop.
When we arrived at the entrance to the park, we saw a (man-made) lake. There were paddleboats, small motorboats, and beach surrey bikes for rent, so we rented a paddleboat and leisurely went around the small lake for an hour. It was very peaceful and I was surprised there weren’t more people out at 11am.
We walked down the main paved path and discovered that as Google Maps showed, the park was indeed massive. We came across a rose garden and took some photos. Then, we kept walking and saw there was a zoo, so we went inside and saw some birds and monkeys. We got back on the paved path and reached a botanical garden, but there weren’t that many flowers. We were getting hungry, so we left the park and took the metro to an area of town we walked through the day before.
There were two restaurants that caught my eye that I had stalked on Instagram. Mozzato had a long line outside and Bellie looked a little less busy, so we went to Bellie. The menu changes every couple of weeks, and everything came in small shareable plates and looked delicious. We got ceviche, baba ganoush, fried fish, and pork with bokchoy. Everything was so flavorful and artfully presented. I loved their dishware! This was one of my favorite meals of our entire Europe trip.
After, it was time to explore old town literally called “Vieux Lyon” which means “Old Lyon”. On our way, we stopped at Place Bellecour to see the festival that they had been setting up for the day before. It was called the Fêtes consulaires and showcased sports and games from around the world. There was a stage in the middle, so we stopped to watch some dances.
It was hot, so we went to a corner store for water, then walked over the Saône River and there was a little farmer’s market going on next to Cathédrale Saint Jean Baptiste. I really wanted ice cream, but I knew there was a bakery I wanted to go to, so I resisted. We went into the church, and it was really pretty inside because of the stained glass windows near the ceiling. The sunlight coming through made everything bright and colorful in a way that I hadn’t seen in other cathedrals before.
After, we found the bakery, Boulangerie du Palais, which seemed to specialize in pralines. In Lyon, they are dyed a rose color for some reason. We got a long churro-shaped praline pastry called an “allumette” which means “matchstick.”
In Lyon, “traboules” are these little “secret” narrow passageways in houses and buildings. We went to a food hall called Food Traboule, which was a small food hall that I had originally thought could be a good place for a birthday meal, but it wasn’t as cool as we thought it was going to be.
Like most European cities, there is a church on a hill overlooking the city. We took the funicular up to the Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourviére. I had looked into going up to the top of the dome, but couldn’t figure out how to book the tickets (I emailed them, but never got a response). We just ended up going into the church, which was free. Behind the church was the view of the whole city.
There was a little tower, called Tour Metallique de Fourvière that reminded me of Petrin Tower in Prague, so we quickly saw that. I don’t think you can climb this one, though. Then, we walked back down the hill and saw the whole city at a garden called Communautaire Jardin du Belvédère. We found our way down the hill instead of taking the funicular. We made it back to the Airbnb and rested for a little bit.
We went to Mozzato at 7:45pm. They said it would be an hour wait and I gave them my phone number to call when our table was ready. We decided to walk around while we waited, but then it started pouring and we got stuck in this rainstorm for an hour. We stayed in the little shopping mall tunnel. The roof was leaky but for the most part we stayed dry. and we were just about to go to a restaurant across the street when Mozzato called me back at 9pm and said our table was ready. We ran down the street and then ordered too much food. Unfortunately, it was kind of expensive and the food wasn’t that good. I think we ordered wrong and would recommend for lunch instead.
The rain did ease up, but it was still drizzling after dinner, so we jogged home, careful not to slip on the cobblestone sidewalks. We were cold and wet when we got back to the Airbnb and we struggled to unlock the door, and this was the most miserable part of the trip. After a solid 10 minutes of trying to unlock the door, I was almost going to give up and knock on a neighbor’s door, but we finally got it open.
DAY 3: SUNDAY, JUNE 4
Taking the train from Lyon to Marseille
To Sarah’s dismay, we Ubered to the train station and got there at 7am. I just was not going to have a London tube situation again where we thought the tube would be open early in the morning (granted that was 4am), but the buses were indeed running at 6am in Lyon.
We arrived at Lyon Part-Dieu in like 15 minutes. The train station wasn’t as nice as Paris and you do have to pay 1 euro to use the bathroom, but they accept Apple Pay and the bathrooms are really clean. This station’s TV screen didn’t show which track our train was going to be on until 10-15 minutes before our train was supposed to arrive. Our train was scheduled to leave at 8:05, so I think arriving 7:30-7:40am would’ve been fine, but what can I say I have travel anxiety and had no backup plan for missing any of our transportation.
Overall, I am glad we went to Lyon. It was very relaxing and chill after spending a week in London and Paris. The food for the most part was great and it was just such a cute little town. However, I don’t think I need to go back for a while.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Lunch at Bellie
- Paddleboats at Parc de la Tête d’Or
- Place des Jacobins
WHAT I WOULD’VE CHANGED:
- Make a lunch reservation at Mozzato and don’t get pasta. Or skip it altogether.
- Go to Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse
OTHER EUROPE 2023 BLOG POSTS:
3 Days in London
4th Timer’s Guide to Paris
2 Days in Marseille
24 Hours in Nice
Pin it: 2 Days in Lyon
