48 Hours in Lyon
Paris can keep you busy for a lifetime, but if you have an extra weekend, visit Lyon. It is the food capital of France for a reason — Paul Bocuse built his empire there, and Lyon has been the reference point for serious French cooking ever since. This is not a full Lyon guide. It is a 48 hour guide on how to spend a weekend seeing something a little different from Paris and eating as much as you can through the French capital of gastronomy.
Getting There
Lyon is about two hours from Paris by train, direct from Gare de Lyon to Lyon Part-Dieu. Take a midday train on Friday and you will still have a lot of the day to explore the city.
Friday: Arrival Day
Check into your hotel, drop your bag, and go walk the city before you do anything else. Lyon has the same instinct for beautiful streets that Paris does — just a little quieter and quainter.
Shopping
The Carré d’Or
Lyon has its own version of the luxury strip, along rue du Président Édouard Herriot in the Presqu’île — the Carré d’Or. Hermès is there, along with Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and the rest of the usual names. Everything you can buy in Paris, you can buy here, and Lyon is smaller and calmer about it. You might even walk out of Hermès with a bag.
Croix-Rousse
If the big luxury houses are not calling to you, skip the Presqu’île strip and head up to Croix-Rousse instead. The pentes, or slopes, of the neighborhood are full of independent designers and concept stores. Passage Thiaffait is at its heart — a former traboule (a hidden pedestrian passageway that typically has a courtyard in the middle and cuts through buildings and connects streets) that now houses independent artists’ and designers’ boutiques. Think of it as Lyon’s answer to Le Marais.
Dinner
You can’t go to Lyon and not eat at Restaurant Paul Bocuse in Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or, just outside the city center and an easy taxi ride. The restaurant held three Michelin stars for 55 consecutive years, longer than any other restaurant in the world. It now holds two stars, and the pinnacle of old-school French fine dining. If you appreciate the art of fine dining, you plan a trip to Lyon for a meal at Restaurant Paul Bocuse.
Saturday: Old Lyon, Lots of Wine, and Strolling
Morning: Vieux Lyon and Fourvière
One of my favorite things to do while traveling to a new place is to take a short private walking tour with a local. Lyon, especially Vieux Lyon or Old Lyon, is a great place for this.
Your local guide will take you through the traboules in Vieux Lyon. The front door on the public street belies the centuries old beauty beyond it. Between the old buildings, once belonging to wealthy Lyonnais families, are mostly private pedestrian passageways that connect one street from another. In the middle, courtyards — some simple, some grand with carved stone, spiral staircases, and art. Most traboules are within private apartments now, but a few still let private guides pass through and a good guide knows the best ones. From Vieux Lyon, head up to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, built in the late 19th century and a mix of Byzantine, Gothic, and Romanesque architecture. It’s probably one of the best places to take in the view of all of Lyon.
As you’re walking around, you may see a bright pink praline, predominately on a pastry, around Lyon. This praline brioche is a signature Lyonnaise pastry — sweet, sticky, and best paired with a coffee.
Lunch: Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse
For a late lunch, head to Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse. Les Halles is an indoor marketplace with stands selling cheeses, meats, fish, and produce. Many of the stalls are run by holders of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France — or MOF — designation, which I mentioned in my Paris Guide. There are also restaurants, where you can linger with a bottle of wine, oysters and other seafood or a charcuterie board. Let lunch run long, enjoy the buzz of the market. Despite its popularity with tourists, Les Halles is also a favorite among the locals, and you will see groups of friends meeting up for a drink or a meal.
After lunch, take a stroll along the Rhône or head back to the hotel for a nap to sleep off that wine buzz.
Dinner: Because This Entire 48 Hour Trip is About Eating
Le Limonadier
Located in Croix-Rousse, Le Limonadier is a two-story restaurant with two distinct personalities. Downstairs is a bar with tapas, sharing plates, natural wine, and a dozen craft beers on tap, for a more casual evening. Upstairs is a more formal dining room (though not really formal), where chef Jorge Lara, formerly of Têtedoie, runs a seasonal, plant forward menu with organic and local ingredients. You’ll see many of his fermented foods in jars around the dining room.
Ayla
If you want to stray from French cuisine, head to Ayla. Lebanese food, from a young Franco-Lebanese couple, built around mezzes.
Sunday: Bid Adieu to Lyon
Take your morning slow. Get some coffee, maybe one last pastry, before you take that easy train ride back to Paris.
Two nights will not be enough to really know Lyon, but it is enough to understand why many people actually prefer it to Paris. Lyon is just a little quieter and a little quainter with a different kind of magic.
If you’re looking for detours from Paris like this one to Lyon, reach out and let’s talk about your trip.
