Gourmets, eat your heart out: Lyon is the gastronomic capital of France, with a lavish table of piggy-driven dishes and delicacies to savour. The city has been a commercial, industrial and banking powerhouse for the past 500 years, and is France's third-largest city, with outstanding art museums, a dynamic nightlife, green parks and a Unesco-listed Old Town.
Fourvière
Over two millennia ago, the Romans built the city of Lugdunum on the slopes of Fourvière. Today, Lyon's 'hill of prayer' – topped by the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière and the Tour Métallique, an Eiffel Tower–like structure built in 1893 and used as a TV transmitter – affords spectacular views of the city. Footpaths wind uphill, but the funicular (place Édouard Commette, 5e; one-way €1.70) is less taxing.
Presqu'île, Confluence & Croix-Rousse Lyon's city centre lies on this 500m- to 800m-wide peninsula bounded by the rivers Rhône and Saône.
The centrepiece of main square place des Terreaux is a 19th-century fountain sculpted by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty. The Musée des Beaux-Arts showcases France's finest collection of sculptures and paintings outside of Paris.
Lyonnais silks are showcased at the Musée des Tissus. Next door, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs displays 18th-century furniture, tapestries, wallpaper, ceramics and silver.
Laid out in the 17th century, place Bellecour – one of Europe's largest public squares – is pierced by an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. South of here, past Gare de Perrache, lies Lyon Confluence the city's newest neighbourhood, where the Rhône and Saône meet. Trendy restaurants line its quays, and the ambitious Musée des Confluences , a science-and-humanities museum inside a futuristic steel-and-glass transparent crystal, is also located here.
North of place Bellecour, the charming hilltop quarter of Croix Rousseis famed for its lush outdoor food market and silk-weaving tradition, illustrated by the Maison des Canuts
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