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Historic sites

Vieux Lyon and Fourvière

France Métropole de Lyon Lyon

Vieux Lyon and Fourvière
Photo: Karldupart, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lyon's old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stretches along the Saône river below the hill of Fourvière, with Renaissance houses, the Gothic Saint-Jean Cathedral and traboules, secret passages through buildings and courtyards that silk workers used to carry their cloth. Some are open to the public.


Take the funicular up to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, with its golden mosaics and a view over the city, and the Roman theatres nearby. Lyon is France's food capital: eat in a bouchon, a traditional Lyonnais bistro.

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