achesh

Hello all,

Boyfriend and I will be driving from Burgundy to Lyon, and dropping our car off before spending time in Lyon. This will be on Wednesday in late Sept, around 2-3 pm.

Question is this: I have read that driving in Lyon is very difficult, traffic and construction-wise. Would it be easiest to drop the car off at the airport and take a shuttle or cab into the city, or is it not that bad that we can drive to the train station (Part Dieu or Perrache - which one?) and get to our hotel from there (Hotel des Artistes)?

I realize that the airport will be out of our way, but perhaps worth it when the driver (boyfriend) speaks no french and the passenger/navigator (me) may not be on their A-game after having stopped in Beaujolais vinyards on the way down...!

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

hanl

If you are coming from the Burgundy/Beaujolais direction, then the logical drop off point would be at Perrache (taking the Fourvière tunnel into the city). That wouldn't involve much actual driving within the city, though to negotiate the intersections from the tunnel exit to Perrache can be tricky, so it would help to have a very good, large-scale map or GPS!
If you can get a good map and clear description of where the rental car drop-off is, then you should be able to manage Perrache.

achesh

Thanks hanl! I will do a bit of investigating to find a good map and ask the chauffeur, er, boyfriend what he would prefer

analogue

Always easy to find the train station. I suggest La Part Dieu.

DeborahAnn

achesh, I can just tell you that our experience of dropping our rental car at the Lyon airport and taking the shuttle bus to Perrache, which also stopped at Part Dieu was so easy. We then walked with our luggage to our La Residence hotel.

We did not miss the absence of a car while staying in Lyon. I wish we could have stayed in Lyon longer than the three days we had there. Deborah

achesh

Thanks everyone for the help! I shared your responses w/ bf last night, and let him make the decision - He decided for the airport, just to avoid as much stress as possible (maybe that means us bickering over which turn to take...!) Thanks for sharing how easy your experience was Deborah.

We are two weeks away, and I am already wishing we had so much more time everywhere! We only have 2 days in Lyon, and there is no way that is enough! Oh well, I guess that means I can already start thinking of our next trip!

hanl

Good luck with the car drop off and enjoy Lyon! It's a wonderful city.