Lyon is France’s most overlooked great city: a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998, the birthplace of cinema, the acknowledged capital of French gastronomy, and the home of a Renaissance quarter filled with secret passageways that the French Resistance used to evade Nazi patrols during World War II. This lyon walking tour companion post pairs with “Lyon Walking Tour | Exploring Vieux Lyon & Climbing to Fourvière Basilica | 4K60FPS Walking France” by the channel Walking Around Europe, which takes viewers through the tightly packed streets of Vieux Lyon and up to the Fourvière hilltop above the city, where a Basilica and Roman ruins look out over Lyon’s long peninsula below.

About This Walking Tour

Walking Around Europe’s 4K 60fps video explores the Vieux Lyon quarter — the largest Renaissance urban district in France, squeezed between the Saône River and the Fourvière hill — and ascends to the hilltop Basilica. Vieux Lyon’s narrow streets, known as ruelles, are lined with tall Renaissance townhouses whose pastel-painted facades and carved doorways open into hidden courtyard complexes. Many of these courtyards are connected to neighbouring streets by the traboules: interior passageways that thread through buildings and across internal courts, allowing pedestrians to cross entire city blocks without stepping back onto the street.

The quarter’s main artery, Rue Saint-Jean, runs past St John’s Cathedral (Saint-Jean-Baptiste), a Flamboyant Gothic cathedral begun in the 12th century and containing a famous 14th-century astronomical clock. From the Vieux Lyon station, a historic funicular — the ficelle — climbs the hillside to the Fourvière plateau, where the ornate Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière (completed 1896) dominates the city’s skyline and the ancient Roman theatres of Lugdunum lie partially excavated nearby. Walking Around Europe’s footage captures the interplay of Renaissance stonework and river light in the lower quarter and the sweeping city panorama from the hilltop above.

Highlights of Lyon

The traboules are Lyon’s most distinctive urban feature. There are around 500 of these interior passageways in Vieux Lyon and the Croix-Rousse district above it; most are accessible to the public during daylight hours though the entrances — often unmarked doorways — require some searching. The passageways were used by silk merchants to transport bolts of fabric sheltered from the weather, and during World War II they provided the French Resistance with a network of escape routes through which pursued individuals could vanish within seconds.

The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière sits on the hill above the city and is visible from much of Lyon. Built between 1872 and 1896 after the city was spared in the Franco-Prussian War, it is a flamboyantly ornate structure mixing Byzantine and Romanesque elements with a mosaic-covered interior. The observation terrace alongside provides the definitive view of Lyon’s two rivers — the Saône and the Rhône — converging to the south.

Directly below the Basilica are the remains of the Roman city of Lugdunum. Two theatres — an odeon and a larger amphitheatre — were built in the 1st century BC and are among the most complete Roman monuments in France. The adjacent Lugdunum Museum presents the story of Lyon as the capital of Roman Gaul with an outstanding collection of inscriptions, mosaics, and everyday objects.

The Lumière Institute and factory in the Monplaisir neighbourhood is where Auguste and Louis Lumière shot and screened the world’s first public films in 1895 and remains an active cinema museum and archive.

A Brief History of Lyon

Lyon was founded as Lugdunum in 43 BC by the Roman general Lucius Munatius Plancus on the Fourvière hill above the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers. It quickly became the capital of Roman Gaul and one of the most important cities in the western empire, with a population approaching 200,000 at its height. The Roman road network radiated from here, and Lyon was the hub of trade between Italy and the rest of Gaul.

The city’s Renaissance prosperity came from the silk trade. Lyon became Europe’s principal silk weaving centre in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the wealthy merchants who controlled the trade built the townhouses of Vieux Lyon. The silk weavers — called canuts — lived in the hillside Croix-Rousse district, where the traboules there were built for transporting finished cloth. The canuts staged major uprisings in 1831 and 1834 — among the first industrial labour revolts in European history.

Auguste and Louis Lumière screened the first public film at the Grand Café in Paris on 28 December 1895, but the technology was developed and the earliest films shot in Lyon. Paul Bocuse, born near Lyon in 1926, became the most celebrated French chef of the 20th century and defined the concept of cuisine lyonnaise. Lyon’s historic districts were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.

Practical Tips

France uses the euro. French is the official language; English is spoken in tourist areas and at most hotels and restaurants. Lyon is served by Part-Dieu station, a TGV hub with trains from Paris in approximately two hours. Metro line D runs to Vieux Lyon station at the base of the Fourvière hill; the funicular to the top departs from the same station complex. Vieux Lyon is a popular dinner destination — Lyon’s bouchon restaurants (traditional bistros serving Lyonnaise specialities) are concentrated here and in the Presqu’île district. Reservations are recommended for evening dining. The Fête des Lumières on 8 December fills Lyon’s streets, squares, and facades with light installations and attracts millions of visitors.

Watch & Explore More

Watch the full Walking Around Europe video above to follow the Vieux Lyon streets and the climb to Fourvière in smooth 4K 60fps. For more French and European walking tours, visit @walkingtoursvideoscom. Related walks worth exploring include Strasbourg’s Petite France and Cathedral and Paris from Montmartre to the Eiffel Tower.