The Best Things To Do in Lyon This Summer

After weeks of confinement, what a pleasure to step back outside. To reacclimatise both to outdoor and cultural life, the people of Lyon will be enjoying the Celebrate Summer festival. Despite a shortened program, this 2020 vintage is just as enticing, with no fewer than 90 free, outdoors events taking place across the city over six weeks. Per usual, the festival will flirt equally with all the arts, from cinema and music, to circus, sports, and theatre. What a way to celebrate summer!

Celebrate Summer - Everyone Outdoors (Fêtons l'été - Tout l'Monde Dehors) - Around Lyon

Sat 11 July - Sun 30 Aug 2020

The Confluence district has brought the ancient capital of the Gauls into the architectural 22^nd century. Erected on the ruins of former industrial wasteland at the southern tip of the Presqu'île, the Confluence is adorned with buildings boasting avant-garde shapes and colours. Chief among them, the orange and green cubic diptych by Jakob + MacFarlane, the maze-like regional council headquarters by Christian de Portzamparc, and the Museum of Confluences with its impressively large collections. A must for all visitors: le Sucre, the city's main club, housed in an old sugar warehouse, with a rooftop and hot programming.

It's been a hundred years since the first stone of the États-Unis district was laid, but Tony Garnier's architectural adventure is more alive than ever. With this ensemble of buildings, Garnier redefined workers' housing, improving their living conditions immeasurably. In the 1980s, the district was renamed Cité Tony Garnier and rehabilitated, before seeing 25 frescoes painted on its walls by the artists of CitéCreation in homage to the architect's influence. Ever since, one can walk around with head tilted skyward to see creations depicting Garnier's celebrated utopian project, the Industrial City. Indulge your nostalgia and be sure to stop by the show apartment, which brilliantly reproduces a lodging from the 1930s.

Tony Garnier Urban Museum (Musée urbain Tony Garnier) - 4 Rue des Serpollières, Lyon 69008.

A vintage goods institution. Since 1995, the Canal Flea Market (les Puces du Canal) has attracted thousands of visitors weekly along the Jonage canal in Villeurbanne. With 600 stalls offering design, jewellery, vinyl, and a thousand other things, it's a second-hand celebration. Feting their quarter-century with great fanfare, les Puces, in partnership with the Lulu Sur la Colline theatre, are extending their hours with the launch of Canal Nights, Thursday through Saturday. Every evening, shows, screenings, barbecue, bars, and, of course, vintage galore! Not to be missed.  

5 Rue Eugène-Pottier, Villeurbanne 69100

Canal Flea Market (Puces du Canal): Thurs 7am-1pm; Sat 9am-1pm; Sun 7am-3pm. Canal Nights (Nuits du Canal): Until Sat 12 Sept. Open Thurs-Sat, 7:30 PM onwards.

After shaking up the Sant-Ouen Flea Market, Cyril Aouizerate, co-founder of Mama Shelter, pulled back the sheets and unveiled his MOB Hotel in the trendy Confluence district. Sitting on the tip of the peninsula, a 5,000-square-metre building set behind a honeycomb façade, with a slew of activities to keep you entertained. Among them (all tested and approved): a pop-up store; a chill rooftop where you can play ping-pong and sip mocktails to American hip-hop (from Nas to Travis Scott); a busy schedule of Pilates, hatha yoga, and DJ sets; and a pop-up restaurant where you can indulge morning, noon, and night in a menu of organic offerings and stellar pizza. In the evening? The downstairs bar has us drinking excellent creative cocktails and organic wine between two boisterous games of table football. With all that, one could almost forget to mention the rooms: each replete with balcony (for us, a view of the banks of the Saône); big, cosy beds under scarlet theatre curtains; Italian showers; and concrete walls. All at insane prices (starting at €99). A must!

MOB Hotel - 55 Quai Rambaud, Lyon 69002

Visiting a convent is not, one might imagine, the most exciting excursion. But when you learn that said convent was designed by Le Corbusier, you practically run to join the order. Located in Eveux, thirty-odd minutes from Lyon, the convent's impressive concrete building lords over the surrounding 70-hectare park. Everything here is hyper-designed, from the church and the façades to the refectory and the lights. You can visit with a guide and even eat here, but the ultimate (mystic?) experience is to spend the night in a monk's chambers...

La Tourette Convent (Couvent de La Tourette) - Eveux 69210

Visits range from free to €8. €54 for the night (includes dinner and breakfast). €14 for a meal (midday or evening). Reservation required for groups of maximum 15 persons, Tues-Sat, 2pm-4pm. The interior of the convent is open exclusively to guided tours, Sundays at 2:30pm.

With rising temperatures testing the limits of our thermometers, it's important to know where to cool down with a dip. And since Lyon dances eternally between the banks of the Rhône and the Saône, the region abounds with bodies of water each more welcoming than the last. All that remains is to make your choice: dabble in the paradisiacal hues of lakes of Nantua, Aiguebelette, and Paladru; dive into the wilder river Ain; or chill on the banks of lakes Cublize and Miribel. And if you set out on an Alpine excursion, impossible not to stop at lakes Annecy and Bourget.

A trip to make (and imbibe) all year long, not just the third Thursday of November! Behind the autumnal apéro hide the vineyards of the Saône river valley, full of surprises far from the region's sometimes poor oenological reputation. Among the winemakers we most strongly recommend, names like Jérôme Balmet, Karim Vionnet, Benoît Camus, Charly Thévenet, and Philippe Jambon. With this list, no one will take you for an amateur.

For more information, visit the Tourism Office of Beaujolais

Suggesting a visit to Saint-Etienne in a guide to Lyon! Something to make any Lyonnais see red. But the mine museum is most definitely worth a detour. Situated in the Couriot coal shafts, the last to have closed in 1973, this museum is a living testament to the centuries of mining life in this region. From the gigantic infrastructure to the emotional intensity of the massive locker room, which served as the meeting point amongst the miners, through the realism of the "descent to the bottom" and the contemporary exhibitions, the Mine Museum will touch your heart. Even that of the the most Lyonnais of Lyonnais.

Couriot Wells - Mine Park-Museum (Puits Couriot - Parc-musée de la Mine) - 3 Boulevard Franchet-d'Esperey, Saint-Etienne 42000

Tues-Sun, 10am-12:30pm and 1:30pm-6pm. Price ranges from free to €6.50