Lyon and the Alps
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Lyon and the Alps - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Lyon and the Alps - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Solid and determined—having withstood the sieges of time, revolution, and war—the cathedral's stumpy facade is stuck almost bashfully onto the nave. Although the mishmash inside has its moments—the fabulous 13th-century stained-glass windows in the choir and the varied window tracery and vaulting in the side chapels—the interior lacks drama and harmony. Still, it's an architectural history lesson. The cathedral dates to the 12th century, and the chancel is Romanesque, but construction on the whole continued over three centuries. The 14th-century astronomical clock, in the north transept, is a marvel of technology very much worth seeing. It chimes a hymn to St. John on the hour at noon, 2, 3, and 4, as a screeching rooster and other automatons enact the Annunciation.
During World War II, Lyon played an important role in the Resistance movement against the German occupation of France. Displays include equipment, such as radios and printing presses, photographs, and exhibits re-creating the clandestine lives and heroic exploits of Resistance fighters.
Contemporary art enthusiasts should check out the Centre National d'Art Contemporain. Behind the train station in an out-of-the-way district, it's noted for its distinctive warehouse space and avant-garde collection.
A scenic mile-and-a-half walk from town takes you to this tiny rural chapel, set among shady trees and vineyards, built in honor of the 6th-century Saint Ostian, a hermit said to have performed various miracles. After his death, a chapel was erected on the site of his modest dwelling and was restored and enlarged in the 11th century. Excavations in the 19th century uncovered the saint's tomb, and his remains were moved to a crypt in the cathedral. Praying to the saint was believed to relieve periods of drought.
Tournon's hefty Château, dating to the 15th and 16th centuries, is the chief attraction. The castle's twin terraces have wonderful views of the Vieille Ville, the river, and—towering above Tain-l'Hermitage across the Rhône—the steep vineyards that produce Hermitage wine, one of the region's most refined, and costly, reds. In the Château is a museum of local history, the Musée Rhodanien.
The 15th-century Château de Corcelles is noted for its Renaissance galleries, canopied courtyard well, and medieval carvings in its chapel. The guardroom is now an atmospheric boutique and tasting cellar, where you can buy and taste the estate wines.
Chambéry's premier sight, the 14th-century Château des Ducs de Savoie, features one of Europe's largest carillons. Its Gothic Ste-Chapelle has lovely stained glass and houses a replica of the Turin Shroud. At the moment, the château can be visited only by guided tour on weekends at 2:30 pm. The 90-minute tour includes a visit to Chambéry's historic center and ends at the château. Tours leave from 71 rue St-Réal in the centre historique.
A ride on one of France's last steam trains, the Chemin de Fer du Vivarais, makes an adventurous two-hour, 33-km (21-mile) trip along the narrow, rocky Doux Gorges to Lamastre and back to Tournon. Check the website for a complete train schedule.
Across the Rhône from the town center is the excavated Cité Gallo-Romaine, covering several acres. Here you can find villas, houses, workshops, public baths, and roads, all built by the Romans. Views of the site can be had from the stunning glassed-in museum, which houses temporary exhibitions, mosaics excavated at the site, a boutique, and a pleasantly bright café.
Part of the Grand Hôtel Dieu complex, Cité Internationale de Gastronomie celebrates Lyon's place as a major culinary destination through a series of temporary exhibitions that explore French food from a variety of creative angles. The recent exhibition "Banquet" immersed viewers into every aspect of a celebratory meal, from kitchen to table, using all five senses. The Miam Miam space for kids introduces little ones to the French secrets of cooking and eating well.
It has a reputation as one of the most luxurious ski resorts in the French Alps, and Courchevel doesn't do much to dispel that notion. Ski shops glitter like designer boutiques, and ski valets place your skis and poles outside on the snow so you don't have to carry them. But it turns out that Courchevel is also one of the area's most inviting towns. None of the locals seem stiff or snooty. The sommelier in the restaurant written up in all the food magazines is happy to give you a tour of the wine cellar, even when the dining room is crowded. Leave behind your voltage converter, and the front desk staff might just give you one for free. And the skiing itself is amazing, with a huge variety of slopes that cater to skiers of every skill level. It's heaven for intermediate skiers, and beginners will find plenty to keep them occupied (including a run that has a great view of Courchevel's postage-stamp airport). The lifts are unusually speedy, keeping lines to a minimum. What's more, the scenery just doesn't get better than this in the French Alps.
A marvel of the Flamboyant Gothic style, the Église de Brou is no longer in religious use. The church was built between 1513 and 1532 by Margaret of Austria in memory of her husband, Philibert le Beau, duke of Savoy, and their finely sculpted tombs highlight the rich interior. Outside, a massive restoration of the roof has brought it back to its 16th-century state, with the same gorgeous, multicolor, intricate patterns found throughout Burgundy. The museum in the nearby cloister stands out for its paintings: 16th- and 17th-century Flemish and Dutch artists keep company with 17th- and 18th-century French and Italian masters, 19th-century artists of the Lyon School, Gustave Doré, and contemporary local painters.
The 12th-century church of St-Paul is noted for its octagonal lantern, its frieze of animal heads in the chancel, and its late-period Flamboyant Gothic chapel.
Built in 1874 after the famous Les Halles in Paris (which was infamously destroyed in the early 1970s), this soaring glass and cast iron structure serves as Grenoble's bustling central market, where you can stock up on all the ingredients for a picnic or a fine French meal, along with prepared Italian and Asian specialties. The covered market is open Tuesday through Sunday until 7 pm (it's closed at lunchtime) with an outdoor farmers' market Tuesday through Friday mornings.
This superb Renaissance mansion, close to the Hôtel Paterin, is noted for its courtyard, with an ingenious gallery built in 1536 by Philibert Delorme, one of France's earliest and most accomplished exponents of classical architecture. Delorme also worked on several spectacular châteaux in central France, including those at Fontainebleau and Chenonceaux.
Architects Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte redesigned the very impressive facade of the Town Hall after a 1674 fire. The rest of the building dates to the early 17th century. The tourist office organizes visits to the hall's salons.
On the site where the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, invented cinematography in their family home, this museum has daily showings of early film classics and contemporary movies as well as a permanent exhibit about the Lumières.
Inside this garden are the excavated ruins of two churches that succeeded one another. The foundations of the churches were unearthed during a time when apartment buildings—constructed here after churches had been destroyed during the Revolution—were being demolished. One arch forms part of the ornamentation in the garden.
One of several small, leafy parks in Lyon, this one is a peaceful place to take a break while admiring the splendid vistas of the river and Fourvière Hill.
In these luxurious botanical gardens you'll find remnants of the once-huge Amphithéâtre des Trois Gaules (Three Gauls Amphitheater), built in AD 19.
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