France: A Week in Lyon - Day Trips
 

My wife and I are planning to spend a week in Lyon in early April. Apart from some time looking around Lyon, we are planning to do a few day trips to Avignon, possibly Annecy, Perouges and possibly Vienne.
We would be really grateful if any Forumites can offer any recent advice/suggestions on day trips from Lyon. Are there other towns we should consider? We love to do walking tours with a guide so we can learn more about the town and its history. (We will be using trains rather than a car so we're trying to understand what's possible and what's not?)

In order of my preference - all less than a 2 hr train trip with 0 train changes:

- Dijon. Do the "owl walk"
- Aix en Provence
- Avignon
- Montpellier
- Chambery
- Beaune
- Grenoble
- Annecy (if you have a car - I would rate it higher)
- Nimes
- Vienne

Perouges is really small.

Stu Dudley

Thanks very much Stu. Really appreciate your suggestions. We've been to Dijon and Beaune previously … and thoroughly enjoyed both places. Annecy sounds like it might be a good option. We won't have a car but I understand you can take a TER (train) from Lyon and that it takes about 2 hours (one way). But then, Chambery also sounds like it could be quite a charming place to visit. I've not been there before … what did you enjoy about it most? Thanks again for your comments.

Beaune is very small - I guess Stu is saying to do the 'route des vins', Beaune and some other along the way.

Geneve is also easily reached and Paray-le-monial is a charming town with a fantastic cathedral - the road towards it is scneic and goes through small nice villages.

I forgot to say that en route to Paray, you can visit l'abbaye de Cluny.

Thanks for your suggestions Whatello. Really appreciate it.

Chambery is just a nice town with passageways & and an interesting main square. It's a very active town & the pedestrian-only section is very close to the train station.

The "interesting" section of Annecy is very small. We found ourselves "repeating" areas we've already explored after 45 mins there. We've visited it many times - once staying for 2 weeks in a gite in Tailloires and exploring the Alps by car.

Stu Dudley

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