Lyon, France: Plus the Saône and Rhône Confluence Region

Updated March 2025
A beautiful city at the confluence of two historic rivers, the Saône and Rhône. Often called France's "Second City", Lyon offers visitors a wealth of experiences from fine dining, exploring Roman ruins, learning about the history of cinema, discovering hidden passageways, and visiting museums from historic to ultra-modern.

This Starting-Point Guide covers Lyon and several nearby towns, villages, and attractions including suggested day tours to the hilly Beaujolais wine country, Vienne, Grenoble, and much more.

A guide for travelers who wish to use one city such as Lyon as their base camp to travel the area and not move from town to town as they travel through Europe. You will find numerous graphs, maps, and photographs to help orient you to this historic area. Guidance on how to get around town and an orientation to the most popular sites is included. This is not a complete guide to the Rhône-Alpes region. Such a guide would go beyond the suggested scope of staying in one town and having enjoyable day trips from there.