Bis-tan-claque, bis-tan-claque… can be heard in every corner. Imagine we are in the 19th century. Lyon awakens with the onomatopoeic bis-tan-claque of the looms, when the canuts (silk workers) on the Croix-Rousse hill start up the machines and the shuttle, along with the metal-and-wood mechanism, becomes the everyday Lyonnais orchestra. At dusk, people hurry to the Grand Café de Paris. Cinema is born thanks to the Lumière brothers, natives of Lyon, who premiere Workers Leaving the Factory.
That pleasant buzz you feel when entering an unfamiliar city is one of travel’s most authentic emotions. For example, in these 48 hours in Lyon, a city that not only doesn’t disappoint, but where the question “how had I not come before?” will be a constant during the exploration of which, if it was considered the French capital of silk between the 16th and 19th centuries, today is the gastronomic capital of France.
Two beautiful rivers, the Rhône and the Saône, and three hills with their peculiar nicknames shape the skyline: the Fourvière hill (where one prays) encloses a significant portion of the city’s architectural and cultural heritage, while on the Croix-Rousse (where work happens) lived the canuts. The Duchère, the most modern, is partly taken up by social-housing buildings. As for the rivers, the Rhône runs through Lyon’s east, where the newer neighborhoods lie along its banks, while the Saône does so on the west and frames the old town.
48 Hours in Lyon
The nickname attributed to the Confluence Museum in the eponymous district refers not only to the exact point where the two Lyonnais rivers meet, but also to the confluence of museums dedicated to science and anthropology housed in the magnificent building, the work of the studio Coop Himmelb(l)au, whose principal architect and founder is Wolf D. Prix.
From the terrace you will observe the rivers converging before boarding the Navigône, a public river service, which both locals and visitors ride, for its voyage through the heart of Lyon, a World Heritage site, is indispensable. We disembark at the St. Paul stop to take the funicular that reaches the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, the work of architect Pierre Bossan in 1872, whose neo-Gothic exterior and setting recall the Sacré-Cœur in Paris. Yet, merely crossing its threshold takes your breath away as you marvel at the display of ornamentation in Romanesque, Byzantine, and Gothic styles. For this they used Carrara marble, gold mosaics, and richly opulent stained glass.
