6 best museums in Lyon

Museums in Lyon

Museum · Terreaux

1.Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Set in a former Benedictine abbey on the Place des Terreaux, this is one of France's largest fine-arts museums outside Paris, with Egyptian antiquities, old masters, Impressionists and works by Picasso and Matisse.

Time needed

2–3 hours

Cost

Mid-priced

• Art
• Rainy day
• History

Museum · Confluence

2.Musée des Confluences

Opened in 2014 at the point where the Rhône and Saône meet, this deconstructivist cloud of glass and steel holds a science and anthropology museum covering the origins of the universe, life on Earth and human societies, with fossils, a mammoth skeleton and ethnographic collections.

Time needed

2–3 hours

Cost

Mid-priced

• Kids
• Rainy day
• Architecture
• Nature

Museum · Monplaisir

3.Institut Lumière

The Lumière family's Art Nouveau villa houses a museum of the Cinématographe and early cinema, next to the factory where Louis and Auguste Lumière filmed workers leaving in 1895, one of the first films ever shown.

Time needed

1.5 hours

Cost

Mid-priced

• History
• Rainy day
• Art

Museum · Vieux Lyon

4.Musée Miniature et Cinéma

In a Renaissance building in Vieux Lyon, this museum displays hyper-realistic miniature scenes alongside original props, costumes and special-effects pieces from well-known films.

Time needed

1.5 hours

Cost

Mid-priced

• Kids
• Rainy day
• Art

Museum · Vieux Lyon

5.Gadagne museums

The largest Renaissance building in Vieux Lyon houses two museums: one on the history of Lyon and one on puppetry, including Guignol, the puppet character created in Lyon in the early 19th century.

Time needed

1.5 hours

Cost

Low cost

• History
• Kids
• Rainy day

Museum · 7th arrondissement

6.Centre for the History of the Resistance and Deportation

Housed in a former military medical school used by the Gestapo during the Occupation, the CHRD tells the story of Lyon, a centre of the French Resistance, through documents, testimonies and the experience of daily life under occupation.

Time needed

1.5–2 hours

Cost

Low cost

• History
• Rainy day

Grouped by area

Booking and timing

Of these 6, 2 low cost, 4 mid-priced. None needs booking far in advance. The longest visit is Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon; group the rest by area to save travel time.

How to fit them into 4 half-days

Grouped by area and kept to about four hours each, so you walk more than you ride.

• Half-day 1 (Terreaux): Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, at least 2 hours.
• Half-day 2 (Confluence and Monplaisir): Musée des Confluences → Institut Lumière, at least 4 hours.
• Half-day 3 (Vieux Lyon): Musée Miniature et Cinéma → Gadagne museums, at least 3 hours.
• Half-day 4 (7th arrondissement): Centre for the History of the Resistance and Deportation, at least 2 hours.

The quietest months for queues

• February: highs of 9°C (48°F), about 7 rainy days, quiet crowds. Still cold but brighter; bakeries fill with bugnes for carnival.
• January: highs of 7°C (45°F), about 8 rainy days, quiet crowds. Cold, often grey and foggy over the rivers; quiet museums and winter sales.
• March: highs of 14°C (57°F), about 8 rainy days, quiet crowds. Mild days return and café terraces reopen; changeable weather.

The neighbourhoods they are in

• Vieux Lyon — Renaissance lanes, traboules and bouchons beneath Fourvière hill
• Confluence — Former docklands at the tip of the peninsula with bold modern architecture

More of Lyon

All things to do in Lyon · Where to stay · When to go.

Questions travellers ask