There was an altercation at the boarding gate for the flight from Lyon to Gatwick last Monday. A passenger was officiously informed that her handbag was her one allocated item of cabin luggage and she would have to check her micro-suitcase into the hold. “Just you wait, mate,” she snapped. “Your days are numbered when Eurostar starts coming here direct.”
While that’s probably not true, the direct rail link from London will help bring France’s second-largest city to the forefront of many more minds as a short-break destination. And it will ease any angst over luggage – because you will be sorely tempted by the array of wines, cheeses and charcuterie that are available in France’s gastronomic capital.
Lyon is more than ready for any rush. Over the past couple of decades, the city has established itself as a cultural hub with an innovative bill of annual events. In the coming 12 months, it will host the Nuits Sonores electronic music festival (13-17 May), Les Nuits de Fourvière music and drama festival (2 June-31 July), the Biennale de Lyon for art and dance (10 Sept-3 Jan), the Lumière film festival (October) the Fête des Lumières contemporary light show (December), and the Bocuse d’Or chefs’ competition (January). And it is building a new football stadium in time for the 2016 European Championships.
But probably the biggest symbol of Lyon’s cultural ambition is the regeneration of its former docklands. Known as La Confluence, because it sits at the meeting point of the Saône and Rhône rivers, the €3bn public and privately funded project started in 2003 and is scheduled to finish between 2025 and 2030. It will double the size of the Presqu’île – the heart of the city – and create “a sustainable neighbourhood for all”, according to Pierre Joutard, director general of the body running the project. “We wanted to build a mixed neighbourhood, with tall and low buildings, old and new, and all different shapes,” he said. “We don’t want a boring city.”
With its starchitecture, media centres, tech start-ups and warehouse hipster vibe, this new quarter gives a fresh face to a city that was the ancient capital of Gaul, flourished as a silk-weaving centre during the Renaissance, became a stronghold of the resistance in the second world war, and a gastronomic superpower in the 20th century under chef Paul Bocuse. Here are my highlights:
What to see
Musée des Confluences
This futuristic building is the beacon of the redevelopment scheme, a radical design of twisted steel, concrete and glass – Lyon’s answer to Bilbao’s Guggenheim - designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au. “It is the first thing people see when they enter the city from the south. We hope it makes them want to stop and explore,” says Nicolas Dupont, head of collections and exhibitions. It has already attracted more than 300,000 visitors since it opened in December, and tells the story of mankind through a collection of two million objects, including a 1,000 year-old mummy and a piece of moon rock. It’s an extraordinary building, housing a cabinet of curiosities that addresses complex subjects such as origins and evolution in an imaginative and innovative way.
• 86 Quai Perrache, museedesconfluences.fr, closed Mon, €9
Musée des Beaux Arts
Known as the mini Louvre, because of the fine collection of masters, including Rubens, Rembrandt, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Dégas, Cézanne, Rodin, Picasso, Braque, Dufy and Bacon. Unlike the Louvre, there’s no queue, and your enjoyment of the paintings is not compromised by the backs of people’s heads. It also has a tranquil courtyard and an airy terraced cafe.
• 20 Place des Terreaux, mba-lyon.fr, closed Tues, €7
Street art
A series of impressively large murals painted by the CitéCréation cooperative are dotted around the city, and tell the story of Lyon’s neighbourhoods and its most famous citizens. There are around 100, some of which you can follow on a mapped trail like a huge pictorial guidebook. The wall depicting the history of the Canuts (silk weavers) in the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood (Boulevard des Canuts and Rue Denfert Rochereau) was the first to be painted 30 years ago, and is updated every 10 years. The Fresque des Lyonnais (Quai Saint-Vincent and Rue de la Martinière) represents 30 people who “made Lyon”, including author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the first film-makers in history Auguste and Louis Lumière, director Bertrand Tavernier and master chef Paul Bocuse.
Traboules
These networks of covered alleyways and stairs linked courtyards and homes to the river from medieval times, and in the Croix Rousse district they allowed the canuts (silk weavers) to transport their goods without them getting wet. Some are still open to the public, identified by discreet signs. The traboules also served as escape routes and hiding places during the German occupation. One traboule, Passage Thiaffait, is now the Village des Createurs – an incubator site for fashion brands and designers, with workshops, cafes and showrooms.
• Lyon tourist office has an iPhone app mapping the traboules for 79p
Parc de la Tête d’Or
Jump on one of Lyon’s Vélo’v rental bikes, and cycle along the Rhone to explore the city’s green lung. An ornamental park with a lake, boules courts and zoo, it’s next to the Musée d’Art Contemporain (81 Quai Charles de Gaulle, €6) in a building designed by Renzo Piano, with a Buckminster Fuller dome outside. Come summertime, you will be able to cycle back down the river for a dip in the outdoor pools of the Centre Nautique du Rhone (8 Quai Claude Bernard, €8).
Where to eat
Les Halles Paul Bocuse
In a city of 4,000 restaurants and 15 Michelin stars, there’s one place where every Lyonnais comes to shop and eat at some point – the covered market bearing the name of the superstar chef. It can be pricey, but the local produce is dazzling – rows of hanging saucisson, brioches with a rich seam of saucisson inside, cheeses in the shape of France, lurid-looking praline tarts, cepe- and foie gras-flavoured macaroons ... It’s liveliest on Sunday mornings. I started with oysters and a glass of Macon at a bar then moved to the cosy Chez les Gones restaurant near the entrance of the market for pike quenelle in crayfish sauce, creamy gratin dauphinois and Saint-Marcellin cheese from local legend La Mère Richard.
• 102 cours Lafayette, halles-de-lyon-paulbocuse.com, closed Mon
Le Canut et Les Gones
If Chez les Gones is an old-fashioned Lyonnais bouchon, then Le Canut et Les Gones (The Silk Worker and the Lyon Kids) offers a modern twist. In the gentrified Croix Rousse quarter, its light and convivial dining rooms are decked out in salvaged retro fixtures and its Lyonnais set menu offers thin slices of tête de veau with pork scratchings, potatoes and tarragon; gratin of andouillete sausage with grain mustard; and tarte aux pommes.
• 29 rue Belfort, +33 4 7829 1723, lecanutetlesgones.com, closed Sun and Mon, menus from €24.70
Cafe Sillon
I ate more classic Lyonnais food at Le Bouchon des Filles, modern cuisine at Brasserie des Confluences, Japanese-French fusion at Do Mo, and even sandwiches du terroir at Gourmix, but one place stood out. Mathieu Rostaing’s pared-back place on the left bank of the Rhone has only been open for a year, but his short menu of innovative food has already made its mark. I had a starter of tempura-fried wild Mediterranean prawns with duck’s heart and liver, then a main course of pollack with petits pois, spring onions, olives, rhubarb, cockles and chorizo. Pudding was white chocolate mousse with nettles, candied sea lettuce and passionfruit sauce. It’s what they call a neo-bistro – and I would walk through walls for a chance to eat that meal again.
• 46 avenue Jean Jaures, +33 4 78 72 09 73, facebook.com/restaurantcafesillon, closed Sun and Mon, three courses €35
Where to drink
Cafe la Fourmilière
Lyon is within easy access of the north and south Côtes du Rhône, Burgundy and Beaujolais, and most places will offer a good choice of wines – Macon, Condrieu, Fleurie, Côte de Beaune, Crozes Hermitages, Morgon, Châteauneuf du Pape – at €3-4 a glass. Come to this bar, just down the road from Cafe Sillon, however, for a good local vibe, craft beers on tap and in bottles, and free gigs, DJs and performances.
• 15 rue Salomon Reinach, lafourmiliere-cafe.fr
Le Sucre
The bar and club on the roof of La Sucrière – a culture and exhibition space in a former sugar factory in La Confluence – is at the forefront of the city’s music scene. The non-profit association behind it, Arty Farty, organises the Nuits Sonores electronic music festival, which is in its 13th year and has put Lyon on the international music map, with artists such as Laurent Garnier, Kraftwerk and, this year, Jamie xx.
• 50 quai Rimbaud, le-sucre.eu
Sonic
Of the many barges on the Saône river, this venue is recommended by Guillaume Duchêne of Arty Farty for noise music, underground bands and a Dark 80s DJ party every weekend.
• 4 quai des Étroits, sonic-lyon.blogspot.com
Where to stay
Hotel Okko
One of a chain of nine boutique hotels across France, Okko offers a “club room” instead of a restaurant, with free hot and soft drinks and snacks throughout the day, sofas, Apple computers, magazines and books. The rooms are compact with clean lines, neutral carpets, desk, Nespresso machine and pod-like shower room-cum-toilet with white louvred slats for modesty. It’s just across the Lafayette Bridge from the Presqu’île district.
• Doubles from €90 B&B, +33 4 28 00 02 50, lyonlafayette.okkohotels.com
Le Collège
This school-themed hotel in the old town has a refectory-style breakfast room stuffed with old books, posters, blackboards and comfy leather sofas. The rooms are bright white. A big draw is the rooftop terrace and the location off the paved alleys of the old town, handy for the Fourvière Basilica and the Gallo-Roman theatre and museum.
• Doubles from €130 room-only, +33 4 72 10 05 05, college-hotel.com
Locals’ tips
Le Café du Rhône
Recommended by Pierre-Marie Oullion, artistic director, Arty Farty
The oldest cafe in Lyon has a new young owner and team. This is the place to eat, meet, hear concerts and dance all in one place.
• 23 quai Victor Augagneur, facebook.com/cafedurhone
Ti Amo Maria
Recommended by Pierre Joutard, director general SPL Lyon
This little Italian restaurant run by Luigi in La Confluence near our offices is exotic, delicious and friendly. Perfect before going for a drink at Le Sucre.
• 16 rue Casimir Périer, facebook.com/pages/Ti-Amo-Maria
Canal flea market in Villeurbanne
Recommended by Nicolas Dupont, Musée des Confluences
Villeurbanne is a city that borders Lyon, and the flea markets cover a vast space with antique shops and second-hand dealers. I go on a Sunday morning to find antiques, but also to have breakfast at the bakery Bettant (patisserie-boulangerie-bettant.fr).
Le Court-Circuit
Recommended by Jérémie Masurel, owner of street art gallery and cafe Slika
This is a popular bar-restaurant co-operative in the revived seventh arrondissement, with regular concerts in its vegetable gardens.
• 13 rue Jangot, le-court-circuit.fr
• Eurostar fares to Lyon from London St Pancras start at £89 return. Journey time is four hours and 40 minutes. The trip was provided by OnlyLyon (OnlyLyon.com)
