France · Self-guided walk
Lyon in one walk 8 sights, 60 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Lyon Old Town: 8 sights on one 4.1 km loop, about 60 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 4.1 km, a loop
- Time
- about 60 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 8
- Start and finish
- Cathédrale Saint-Jean
- Steps
- on Place Bellecour
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Lyon walk: 8 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
8 sights in Lyon, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. Cathédrale Saint-Jean
the start · inside open Mon–Thu 08:15–19:45, Fri 08:15–20:45, Sat 08:15–19:00, Sun 08:00–19:00
Get close to the west face before you look up. The three doorways are framed by hundreds of little carved panels at head height, and by no means all of them are pious. Inside there is a clock that does something on a timetable. I am not telling you what, or when.
Next: Église Saint-Georges, 520 m, about 8 min, along Rue du Doyenné.
2. Église Saint-Georges
about 8 minutes of walking from the start
The downstream end of the level, right on the water, and the quietest corner in it. Come over on the footbridge instead of along the bank: the whole thing was put up to be seen from out on the river. Then turn round and look back at where you have been.
Next: Place Bellecour, 660 m, about 10 min, along Passerelle Saint Georges, Rue Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
3. Place Bellecour
about 18 minutes of walking from the start
Everybody photographs the big one. Off to a corner, far smaller and easy to walk past, a writer sits with the boy he invented. He was born a few streets from where you are. The rest of it is width, and width is rare on this level.
Next: Place des Célestins, 330 m, about 5 min.
4. Place des Célestins
about 23 minutes of walking from the start
Small, with one very grand front along a side of it. The best thing here is not at eye level and it is not up above you either. There is a single spot in the paving to look from. You can find it.
Next: Église Saint-Nizier, 670 m, about 10 min, along Rue Jean Fabre.
5. Église Saint-Nizier
about 33 minutes of walking from the start
Its two towers do not match, and once you have seen that you cannot unsee it. Shops are packed tight on all four sides, so you will meet it from four different lanes and never get the whole of it at once. Go all the way round the outside before you go in.
Next: Place Louis Pradel, 580 m, about 9 min, along Rue Pléney, Rue Pizay.
Lunch break
La Meunière, 11 Rue Neuve, about 80 m off the route, open Tue–Sat 12:00–14:00, 19:00–21:30, Mon, Sun closed.
The mâchon is served here at nine in the morning, Tuesday to Saturday, which is about the only way left to eat this city's oldest meal at the hour it was built for. More on what to eat in Lyon.
6. Place Louis Pradel
about 41 minutes of walking from the start
The north end, a terrace lifted above the traffic, with the opera house over it under a long black barrel of a roof. Half the lanes up here drain into it. Sit on the edge a minute and watch which direction everybody arrives from.
Next: Fontaine Bartholdi, 300 m, about 5 min, along Place des Terreaux.
7. Fontaine Bartholdi
about 46 minutes of walking from the start
Four horses coming at you out of the water, a woman driving them, and nobody involved is slowing down. Mist blows from the horses' nostrils. The thing was designed for a different town that decided it cost too much, and Lyon took it. Stand in front of the horses, not beside them.
Next: Pont de la Feuillée, 350 m, about 5 min, along Rue d'Algérie, Pont de la Feuillée.
8. Pont de la Feuillée
about 51 minutes of walking from the start
Stop halfway across. Look one way, then the other: the Saône with a hill standing over each end of it, which is this whole town in two glances. Then keep going, because nothing lives underneath this particular bit of road and I find that restful.
Back to the start: Cathédrale Saint-Jean, 680 m, about 10 min, along Quai de Bondy, Rue Mandelot.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Lyon.
This loop is 8 sights. The Old Town is 234 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Lyon Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.