On my third stop on my graduation backpacking trip in Europe, we spent three days in Lyon, France! After living in Lyon for 5 months last year, I absolutely had to visit when traveling through France. I had missed Lyon so much, so it felt so good to be back! Some little things had changed in a year, like how they updated the metros. But everything else felt the same.

In this blog, I’m going to share everything we did during our three day trip to Lyon. I would say this itinerary is perfect for anyone who has never been to Lyon before, or even if you’ve visited a few times! This itinerary is also perfect for you if you are backpacking and on a budget, because a lot of our activities were FREE! I felt that we hit all of the must-do activities one should do when in Lyon. Use this blog as inspiration when planning your own trip. If you are planning a trip to France from the U.S., you absolutely need to visit Lyon. It is such an underrated city that no one knows about!

My itinerary at a glance:

Day 1:
Flying into Lyon, checking into Airbnb
Dinner in Vieux Lyon
Enjoying a bottle of wine on the Rhône

Day 2:
Breakfast at one of my favorite cafés in Croix Rousse
Exploring Croix Rousse + tasting brioche aux pralines
Vieux Lyon + finding the secret passageways
Dinner at Carmelo’s + meeting up with a friend from Lyon

Day 3:
Market & picnic on the Saône
Parc Blandan
Fourvière + the Roman ruins
My favorite jazz club

Day 1: Arriving in Lyon + Exploring at Night

We arrived by plane in Lyon from Madrid at around 4pm and took the train from the airport into the city. To get from the Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport to the center of Lyon, it is super simple because they have a train called the Rhône Express that only takes 30 minutes to reach the Part-Dieu station. From here, we took Metro B and D to reach Vieux Lyon, which is where our Airbnb was.

Tip: You do not need to buy a three day metro pass or anything of the sorts when visiting Lyon. I would say buy 2 single tickets at a time, because they last 90 minutes, and you’ll most likely be walking everywhere!

I already felt immediately at home once we arrived because as we were waiting for the Rhône Express, a girl asked me in French if the train was headed in a certain direction. It reminded me of when I lived here, because once I could give people directions around Lyon in French, I really felt like a local.

Our Airbnb was so cute and perfect for three people. We had an amazing view of Fourvière, which is the hill home to La Basilique Notre Dame which you can see from almost any point in Lyon.

Dinner in Vieux Lyon

For dinner, I had wanted to take Rohini and Emma to one of the classic Lyonnaise restaurants, the bouchons, but their menus have mostly meat options and they are both vegetarians. If you aren’t vegetarian, definielty try one out because they are super unique! Bouchons are very famous here and are known for their three course meals offering typical lyonnaise dishes like Quenelles and Gratinée à l’Oignon. I recommend Bouchon Rouge!

Instead of a bouchon, we decided on restaurant that was actually kiddie corner to the first place I had ever had dinner in Lyon! Kind of a full circle moment for me. The restaurant was called Giovanny’s Ristorante. I had the bolognese here, and it was pretty good, but I did expect it to be a little bit better since every meal I’ve had in Lyon was phenomenal, given that Lyon is the gastronomical capital of the world!

Wine & the Rhône

One of my favorite things I would do when I lived in Lyon was hangout on the steps by the Rhône at night with my friends, so I wanted to do that with Rohini and Emma too! So after dinner, we stopped at a Casino Shop, which is a convenience store, to pick up a bottle of wine and go to the river.

It drizzled on us a bit while we were sitting there, but not hard enough to have us leave. The weather ended up feeling perfect. It felt really weird to be there with Rohini and Emma, only because I had talked about Lyon so much to them, and always said where I’d take them if we ever visited together. It was crazy that we were all actually there!

As we walked back to our Airbnb in Vieux Lyon, we walked pass a food stand right next to Maker of Stories that sells churros. I used to stop here for churros when I was out at night with my friends, so it was only natural we did too! The churros are a great deal too, you get 18 churros for 6 euros. And for an extra dollar you can have Nutella – obviously we got Nutella too. We sat down on a bench at Bellcour to enjoy the churros. Turned out to be a good first night back in Lyon!

Day 2: Croix Rousse and Vieux Lyon

My Favorite Café in Croix Rousse

We slept in a bit for our first full day in Lyon since we only had about four hours of sleep after clubbing in Madrid and catching our flight here. We woke up around 9:30 and left for the day by 10:30am. We decided to go to one of my favorite cafés for breakfast, Le Perko Café. I had normally come here to do homework and have tea, so I was excited to try more of their food! Also, I had given up coffee when I lived in Lyon, but now I drink coffee again so I was so excited to try French coffee!!

One of the things that made me love Le Perko from the start was when I came the first time, the owner said I can feel like home here since I had moved 2,000 + miles. This really left an impression on me and I felt right at home when coming back.

Le Perko is just such a gem in my opinion. The inside is so cute, it has a hanging table with swings to sit at, and they have a quaint upstairs with refurbished traditional chairs!

For breakfast, I ordered a galette bretonne, which is a savory crêpe made with buckwheat and filled with ham and cheese. This was absolutely amazing and so filling! I also had my first cappuccino ever in France, and I think my heart skipped a beat because it was made perfectly.

Exploring Croix Rousse

After our brunch, we walked up and through Croix Rousse to find one of my favorite spots in all of Lyon. This spot I had first found when I was on a date one time and we were strolling through the city, but it turns out to be one of the best places to sit and look at the city. It took me a bit to find it since I didn’t know the exact location, but on our way, we stopped at a little shop called Eric Lardet selling Brioche aux Pralines, so we stopped in to pick one up first. Originally, I wanted to get one from the one store in Vieux Lyon where you see everyone waiting in a long line and they have the striped bags with brown pink and green, but this was more convenient since we didn’t have to wait in line. We also brought it with us to the lookout over Croix Rousse! The Brioche aux Pralines were very tasty, but I do think the ones from the shop in Vieux Lyon are better. These were slightly dry, but I would still buy from them again!

You can find this lookout at Jardin et Esplanade de la Grande-Côte !

When I had been before to this lookout, it was in March so the trees weren’t full with leaves at the time, so it was so cool for me to see everything filled in!

Secret Passageways in Vieux Lyon

After enjoying our little treat, we made our way down into Vieux Lyon. Vieux Lyon literally means “Old Lyon”, so this is the oldest part of Lyon when the city was first built. The streets here are made out of cobblestone, and this is also where you find the classic Lyonnaise restaurants, the bouchons.

I was shocked at how busy the streets were! But I guess it makes sense because it was a Saturday in May and the weather was beautiful.

As we strolled the streets, we were searching for the famous traboules, which were originally built around the 4th century to allow people to reach the river quickly from their home. Eventually, the canuts, or silk workers, used them to carry their ever so heavy loads of silk from Croix Rousse to the bottom of the hill. As of most recently, the traboules were used as a secret meeting point during World War 2 as preventing of the Nazis occupying Lyon.

These traboules are hard to find, there are over 400 of them, and only 40 open to the public, but they aren’t all clearly labeled. We were trying to find the lyon plaque that is typically on the outside of them but we ended up stumbling upon a widely known one that was filled with people. They were a lot busier than when I had gone through them before! It was super neat to show my friends the traboules.

Dinner at Carmelo’s

For dinner, we made reservations for 6:45pm at one of my favorite places, Carmelo’s. Carmelo’s is an Italian restaurant and one of the most popular ones in Lyon! I’m not sure why we made the reservations at that time because we never ate that early on this trip haha.

If you’ve ever heard of Pink Mama’s in Paris, Carmelo’s is owned by the same parent company, and they even have the famous truffle pasta for a cheaper price!

We met up for dinner here with my French buddy, Clara, from when I lived here! We met through our school because I wanted to have a French speaking friend, and she wanted an English speaking friend to practice with. We had only hung out a few times but we got along really well and stayed in touch!

I had forgotten to tell her that Rohini and Emma don’t speak French, so I caught her off guard with English, but she seemed very comfortable. She said she doesn’t normally practice!

Dinner was amazing here! The service was very good and the energy in the restaurant was really high, that’s one thing I love about the whole experience eating at Carmelo’s. We all ordered the truffle pasta, and I had the bellini spritz. This happens to be the same exact thing I got when I came here before haha.

Carmelo’s is located in the Presque Isle which is near tons of shops, bars, and other restaurants. You could easily spend the good part of a day just walking through the Presque Isle!

After dinner, we all walked to my favorite bar, Maker of Stories (or MOS) for a drink. I talked them all into ordering my favorite drink, a Kasteel Rouge, and I was happy because they all loved it! I had only ever seen the Kasteel Rouge in Lyon. I’ve seen other beers from Kasteel in other cities, but they weren’t as good as the rouge. It has a cherry flavor to it, and reminds me of a cider.

It turned out to be such a great day for exploring, and I’m so happy we could meet up again with my friend Clara!

Day 3: The Saône, the 7th, & Jazz Music

Sunday Market & Picnic on the Saône

Our third and final day in Lyon was a Sunday, so we started our day at the market, or marché, on the Saône. I used to go to this market every Sunday when I lived here, so I was filled with so much happiness walking through it and seeing the same vendors and people that I would buy my produce from. The smells of food from this market are everything!

We picked up little things to bring back to the quay of the Saône for a little picnic. I got a quiche and fresh pineapple, Emma had a tarte aux abricots (apricots), and Rohini made her own baguette sandwich with fresh cheese and tomatoes! Besides the pigeons attacking us the whole time, it was very relaxing.

After breakfast, we walked to down Victor Hugo to Place Carnot so I could show them where I went to University here. Victor Hugo is a very lively street full of shops and little cafés that are fun to explore. We then went to Perrache and took the T2 to the stop Route de Vienne in the 7th arrondissement so I could show them my favorite boulangerie that I went to almost everyday, and where my apartment was.

For this next part, I don’t recommend you add this to your itinerary, this was just something personal I wanted to do! Instead, you can explore the Presque Isle, or go to the Musée des Confluences!

After seeing my old apartment, we walked through the cemetery nearby because when I lived here, my cousin found out that my great ancestors come from Lyon! When I lived here, I didn’t think to look through the cemetery to see if I could find my last name, but when I came back I knew I need to do it.

I unfortunately didn’t see any last name from my family. But I did have a rush of emotions run through me at one point. It was the most bizarre thing, I felt like I was going to cry! Cemeteries can be spooky even during the day.

Parc Blandan

After we strolled through the cemetery, we walked to the nearby park that I used to run through. Originally, I wanted to take them to my absolute favorite cafe in all of Lyon, Comme à la Maison, but it was closed on Sundays! I was so disappointed. Instead, we took our treats from my boulangerie and enjoyed them in the park. It was nice to show them the less touristy part of Lyon, because there were lots of people there enjoying their Sunday with friends or just tanning in the grass. I loved it!

Fourvière and Roman Ruins

Next up on our itinerary was going to Fourvière. Fourvière is the hill in Lyon that you can see from almost any point, and is home to Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière (or the Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière). The basilica was built in the late 1800’s and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. This is because in the 1600’s when a plague tour through Europe, people prayed to the Virgin Mary for protection.

In order to reach Fourvière, you need to take the funicular up. This is connected to the Vieux Lyon stop on Metro D, and you can use any public transportation ticket. We took the funicular up and then walked down to our Airbnb after. You can also walk up from Vieux Lyon but it’s a lot of stairs haha.

La Basilique is the most beautiful church I’ve ever been in. I am always impressed by the mosaics lining the walls. I can’t imagine how long that took to put in! After walking through the basilica, we spent time admiring the view of Lyon from the hill of Fourvière. It’s a great idea to do this after you’ve explored Lyon because then you can get a sense of where you’ve been!

To the right next to Fourvière happens to be Roman ruins which are free to explore! It’s crazy to me that Lyon has Roman ruins because it’s not normally talked about in the United States. I wanted to take them to the Roman Theater which holds up to 10,000 people, but for some reason I got lost. We ended up at Odéon, which is the smaller theater and can seat 3,000 people. We sat here for a while to rest our feet and also ponder about what the Romans used to do in these theaters. It’s so interesting to think back on history while sitting in it!

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the ruins!

La Clef de Voûte Jazz Club

For dinner, we made reservations in advance at La Clef de Voûte Jazz Club! This spot was one of my favorite things to with my friends when I lived in Lyon. I love this little gem because the musicians are very talented, and the crowd really gets into it. I think I even saw a person in the crowd that I saw the last time I was here over a year ago! Admission to the jazz club is completely free, and they encourage you to leave a tip before you leave!

The jazz club is located in Croix Rousse and you’ll have to take these very long steps painted like a starry blue sky to reach it. It’s to the left of a pizza shop, and when you reach the jazz club, you’ll go down a set of stairs and be greeted by the host. Once inside, it feels like you are in a wine cellar because the walls are stone and rounded with short ceilings. It’s very vibey, and would be perfect for a date! I recommend arriving early so you can order pizza and wine before they start. The pizza is always delicious, I always plan on eating dinner here when I come!

The concert lasts about 2-3 hours and they’ll do two sets within that time frame. I’ve never been to anything like it before, this is definitely a must-do experience!

After the jazz club, we walked back to our Airbnb and pre-packed our bags, because the next morning we had to catch a 6:30am bus to Geneva!

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I hope you found this full three day itinerary for Lyon super helpful! If you have any questions or want more suggestions, reach out to me on instagram, @underthesun.blog!

Xx,
Carmela