Why Lyon is the perfect long weekend

With its historic sights, winding alleyways, buzzing riverside and distinctive cuisine, Lyon is perfect for a long weekend, says Christopher Beanland.

See

The old town is packed with quirks, from the huge windows of the silk weavers’ houses in the Croix-Rousse area, which let in light so that they could spin the thread, to the winding alleys between old buildings used by Resistance saboteurs escaping the Gestapo in the Second World War.

Cinema began in Lyon — the Lumière Brothers invented the first film cameras and projectors at the end of the 19th century and made and showed their own movies. You can learn more about them at the Institut Lumière (institut-lumiere.org), a cinema, museum and library.

A 20-minute train ride from Lyon Gorge de Loup station brings you to L’Arbresle. Once you climb to the top of the hill above the village, you’ll find one of the 20th century’s most significant buildings, Couvent de La Tourette (couventdelatourette.fr).

Designed by Le Corbusier, with musician Iannis Xenakis, the monastery’s cool, grey concrete is punctuated by long windows inspired by musical notes and splashes of primary colours straight out of a Picasso painting.

Guided tours take place every Sunday at 2.30pm.

The Musée des Confluences (Alamy Stock Photo)

Do

The banks of the Rhône are where Lyon has fun. The municipal pools — Centre Nautique Tony Bertrand (en.lyon-france.com) — are a complex of slides, sun terraces and places to take a dip right by the riverside. The place gets packed whenever the sun comes out. Down in La Confluence, the former dock area where the Rhône meets the Saône, explore a world of weird architecture: offices like blocks of Mimolette cheese, the old sugar factory turned art gallery with DROIT (right) and GAUCHE (left) printed enigmatically on each tower (lasucriere-lyon.com) and the new Musée des Confluences (museedesconfluences.fr). Designed by eccentric Austrian architects Coop Himmelb(l)au, it went wildly overbudget, looks like a crashed glass spaceship, and offers exhibitions about science and history.

One of Europe’s most important electronic music festivals, Nuits Sonores (nuits-sonores.com), takes place in rundown old venues by the river each year. Joy Orbison, Jeff Mills and James Blake dropped beats this year.

Eat

Hôtel-Dieu, Lyon’s grand former 18th-century hospital, has been restored and reopened after four years of dereliction. In one corner is food hall Les Halles Grand Hôtel-Dieu (halles-grand-hotel-dieu.fr), with a dozen traiteurs, all local family businesses. Pignol serves the city’s famous pralines, caramelised almonds in a shocking-pink jacket. Cerise et Potiron goes one better by baking them into a moreish little tart. Fromager La Mère Richard has a pungent selection of cheeses — put them on yeasty ficelle bread from Pozzoli.

The central dome at the InterContinental Lyon Hôtel-Dieu

Stay

The new InterContinental Lyon Hôtel-Dieu (ihg.com) is also in the sprawling Hotel-Dieu, with the Epona restaurant from lauded chef Mathieu Charrois. The pièce de résistance is the bar and presidential suite in the huge central dome, which looks like a train station.