France's third-largest city, Lyon has a habit of surprising visitors who expect it to play second fiddle to Paris. It doesn't. This is the country's gastronomic capital — a title earned not through marketing, but through centuries of feeding people extraordinarily well. The old city climbs hills above two rivers, a UNESCO-listed Renaissance quarter hides secret passageways behind its stone façades, and the food markets alone justify the train journey. And at two hours from Paris on the TGV, there's really no excuse not to go.
What to see in Lyon
Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière
Built in 1870 in a striking blend of Byzantine, Gothic and Romanesque styles, this basilica has become the defining symbol of Lyon. More than 2.5 million people visit each year — and on a clear day, the views from the hill stretch all the way to the Alps and Mont Blanc.
Fourvière Hill
Known locally as "the hill that prays," Fourvière is accessible by footpath or funicular. At the top, the panorama over Lyon is genuinely spectacular — the two rivers, the old city rooftops, and on fine days, a distant ridge of snow-capped peaks. Worth every step of the climb.
Gallo-Roman Theatres
Two Roman theatres cut into the hillside — the Grand Théâtre dating from 15 BC with room for 10,000 spectators, and the smaller Odéon for 3,000. Still very much in use, they host the Nuits de Fourvière festival every summer. Two thousand years old and still booking acts.
Gadagne Museums
Set inside a fine Renaissance building in Vieux Lyon, this museum complex houses both the Lyon History Museum — covering the city from antiquity onwards — and the Museum of Puppet Arts. The building itself, with its courtyard and carved stonework, is part of the experience.
Halles Paul Bocuse
The covered market on Rue de la Part-Dieu brings together 56 specialist traders — cheesemongers, chocolatiers, bakers, charcutiers — under one roof. It is the clearest expression of what Lyon considers important. Come hungry, ideally mid-morning, and plan to linger considerably longer than intended.
Musée Lumière
The Lumière brothers invented cinema here, in this very villa. The museum presents their original cameras and the first ten films ever made. It's a modest building for what it represents — the beginning of an entire art form, in a quiet residential street in the 8th arrondissement.
Mural des Canuts
Created in 1987 in the Croix-Rousse district, this is the largest mural in Europe — a trompe-l'œil depiction of everyday life in the neighbourhood, updated periodically to reflect the changing city. It's the sort of thing you walk past, do a double-take, then spend ten minutes looking at properly.
Place des Terreaux
The centrepiece of the Presqu'île peninsula, this square brings together the Hôtel de Ville, the Bartholdi Fountain and the Museum of Fine Arts. During the Fête des Lumières each December, the entire space transforms into something quite extraordinary — though it's well worth visiting at any time of year.
Audio guide for Lyon with Guipock
Exploring Lyon on your own terms is straightforward enough — but having the right context at the right moment makes a significant difference. The Guipock audio guide for Lyon is built around that idea: high-quality information delivered precisely when you need it, without fuss.
The GPS-guided map tracks your position as you move through the city. When you arrive at a point of interest, Guipock alerts you so you can open the audio guide for that stop. No hunting through menus mid-walk — you get a notification, tap to listen, and carry on. The high-quality generated audio is available in a wide range of languages and regional accents, including en-GB, en-US, en-AU, fr-FR, de-DE, es-ES, es-MX and others — genuinely useful if you're travelling with people who prefer different languages.
One practical feature that seasoned travellers tend to appreciate: offline download. Before you leave your hotel, download the entire Lyon tour over Wi-Fi. After that, the app works without any mobile data at all. No roaming charges, no patchy signal in the old city's narrow traboules — it simply works.
Travelling with family? The family code means a single purchase covers everyone. Each person uses the app on their own device, in their own preferred language. No sharing screens, no passing a phone around at the top of a hill. The kids' mode offers the same itinerary with shorter commentary, adapted language and a pace that keeps younger visitors genuinely engaged rather than drifting off towards the nearest crêpe stand.
For a city as layered as Lyon — Roman ruins beneath a Renaissance quarter beside a futurist science museum — having a well-structured Lyon audio guide app to hand means you spend less time reading information boards in the cold and more time actually looking at things.
