Lyon Food, Wine & Culture Guide
Visit on A Taste of France Culinary Tour
Lyon is, by common consent, the gastronomic capital of France — a grand city of rose and ochre at the meeting of two rivers, where eating well is not a luxury but a civic duty. Here, midway through A Taste of France, the tour arrives at the source of everything it celebrates.
History & Culture
Founded by the Romans as Lugdunum, capital of the Three Gauls, Lyon has been a crossroads of trade and ideas for two thousand years — a Renaissance banking centre, the birthplace of European silk, and the cradle of cinema, where the Lumière brothers shot the first film. Its old town is among the largest Renaissance quarters in Europe, threaded with traboules, the hidden covered passages that once let silk-weavers move their cloth out of the rain.
Paris is the head of France. Lyon is its stomach — and everyone knows which of the two you truly cannot live without.
On Lyon’s quiet superiority
Must Visit
Vieux Lyon & the Traboules
Vieux Lyon, at the foot of Fourvière hill, is one of Europe’s greatest Renaissance quarters — a warren of cobbled streets, pastel facades, and traboules, the secret passages that cut through courtyards and buildings. Slipping through a traboule from one street to the next is the definitive Lyonnais experience, and a reminder that the city keeps its treasures half-hidden.
Landmark
Fourvière Basilica
Crowning the hill above the old town, the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière is a lavish 19th-century confection of mosaic and gilt, and its terrace offers the finest view in Lyon — the two rivers, the red roofs, and, on a clear day, the distant white line of the Alps. It is the city’s balcony, and the classic place to get your bearings.
Neighbourhood
La Croix-Rousse, Hill of the Silk-Weavers
The steep slopes of La Croix-Rousse were once home to the canuts, the silk-weavers whose looms clattered behind every window and whose revolts helped shape modern France. Today it is a village-like quarter of studios, markets, and cafés, its high-ceilinged weavers’ workshops now among the most sought-after homes in the city.
Iconic Experience
The Two Rivers
Lyon sits on a narrow peninsula between the Rhône and the Saône, and life here is organised around their banks — the elegant quais, the Presqu’île’s grand squares, and the modern Confluence district where the rivers meet. A walk from one river to the other, crossing the Presqu’île, is a walk through two thousand years of the city’s history.
Culinary Specialties
If A Taste of France has a spiritual home, it is Lyon. This is the city of the bouchon and the mère, of Paul Bocuse and the covered market that bears his name. Over three days the tour eats its way to the heart of French cooking — through the legendary Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse and on to a dinner at Troisgros, one of the most decorated restaurants in the world.
In Lyon, a city of a thousand restaurants, the only difficult thing about lunch is that it makes you late for dinner.
On eating in the capital of French cuisine
The Market
Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse
Named for the chef who made Lyon synonymous with great cooking, the covered market of Les Halles Paul Bocuse is a temple to French produce — dozens of stalls of Bresse chicken, Saint-Marcellin cheese, charcuterie, and pastry, presided over by the city’s finest artisans. On the tour we come to graze, to taste, and to understand why Lyonnais take their market so seriously.
The Tour Table
Dinner at Troisgros
In the countryside near Roanne, an hour from Lyon, the Troisgros family have held three Michelin stars for over half a century — one of the longest unbroken runs in gastronomic history. Dining here, in their light-filled country estate, is a highlight not just of the tour but of a lifetime’s eating: French haute cuisine at its most inventive and assured.
Bouchon Classic
The Bouchons of Lyon
The bouchon is Lyon’s own kind of restaurant — small, warm, and gloriously unfussy, serving the hearty local repertoire on paper cloths with a pot of Beaujolais. Quenelles, andouillette, saucisson brioché, salade lyonnaise crowned with a poached egg, and the shocking-pink tarte aux pralines: this is the food that built the city’s reputation.
Sweet & Savoury
Pralines, Cervelle de Canut & Beaujolais
Lyonnais cooking loves its curiosities — the bright-pink praline that colours brioche and tarts, the herby fresh cheese called cervelle de canut, the pillowy coussin de Lyon sweets — all washed down with the fruity reds of nearby Beaujolais and the Rhône. Sweet or savoury, it is a cuisine of generosity and good humour.
Silk, Rivers & City Life
Lyon wears its wealth quietly. This is a city of grand 19th-century boulevards and secret courtyards, of silk that once clothed the courts of Europe and rivers that carried its fortune. Life is lived on the quais and in the squares — over a long lunch, a slow apéritif, a stroll across the Presqu’île as the light turns the ochre facades to gold.
Lyon does not perform for visitors the way Paris does. It simply lives extraordinarily well, and lets you join in.
On the Lyonnais art of living
Grand City
The Presqu’île
The Presqu’île, the peninsula between the rivers, is Lyon’s grand drawing room — the vast Place Bellecour, the elegant shopping streets, the opera house and the Hôtel de Ville. It is where the city dresses up, shops, and promenades, and where the Sofitel Lyon Bellecour places guests at the very centre of things.
Silk Heritage
The Silk-Weavers’ Legacy
For centuries Lyon clothed the courts of Europe, and the imprint of silk is everywhere — in the tall weavers’ houses of the Croix-Rousse, the traboules built to protect the cloth, and museums where the great looms still turn. It is a heritage of craft and luxury that runs, fittingly, through a city that prizes fine things.
Riverside Life
The Quais & the Confluence
Lyon’s riverbanks have been reborn as the city’s living room — the Rhône quais lined with floating bars and joggers, the Saône reflecting Vieux Lyon, and, to the south, the futuristic Confluence quarter where the two rivers finally join. An evening stroll along the water is Lyon at its most relaxed.
Iconic Experience
An Apéritif on the Presqu’île
As evening falls, the terraces of the Presqu’île fill for the sacred ritual of the apéritif — a glass of something cool before the serious business of dinner begins. To join in, watching Lyon shift gently from day to night, is to be briefly and completely Lyonnais.
Lyon in June — A Taste of France Weather Guide
The tour reaches Lyon in the third week of June
🌡️ Temperature
Lyon warms up in June, with highs of 25–28°C (77–82°F) and comfortable mornings. Sitting in a river valley, the city can feel hot at midday and pleasantly mild by night, when temperatures ease to 15–17°C (59–63°F).
☀️ Sun & Rain
Long, bright days dominate, with the odd sharp thundershower that clears as fast as it arrives. The cool traboules and covered market offer welcome shade when the afternoon sun is at its strongest.
👗 What to Wear
Light, breathable clothing for warm days, with something smarter for the great restaurants. Comfortable shoes are essential for the cobbles and the steep climbs of Vieux Lyon and the Croix-Rousse.
💡 General Tips
Book bouchons and starred tables ahead. Lunch is taken seriously and lingered over, so plan lighter mornings. And ride the funicular up to Fourvière for sunset — the view over the two rivers is Lyon at its finest.
Ready to Taste France?
Lyon is the beating heart of a journey that runs from the cellars of Champagne to the vineyards of Bordeaux. Reserve your place on A Taste of France and let our specialists arrange every last detail.
