7 Best Sights in Lyon and the Alps, France

Measuring 143 yards across, the Théâtre Romain is one of the largest in Gaul. It held 13,000 spectators and is only slightly smaller than Rome's Theater of Marcellus. Rubble buried Vienne's theater until 1922; excavation has uncovered 46 rows of seats, some marble flooring, and the frieze on the stage.

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.

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.

The last vestige of the city's sizable Roman baths is a Roman gateway decorated with delicate friezes.

The remains of the Temple d'Auguste et de Livie, accessible via Place St-Paul and Rue Clémentine, probably date in part from Vienne's earliest Roman settlements (1st century BC). The Corinthian columns were walled in during the 11th century, when the temple was used as a church; in 1833 Prosper Mérimée intervened to have the temple restored.

Two ruined, semicircular, Roman-built theaters are tucked into the hillside, just down from the summit of Fourvière. The Grand Théâtre, the oldest Roman theater in France, was built in 15 BC to seat 10,000. The smaller Odéon, with its geometric flooring, was designed for music and poetry performances.