Despite many times I have been to this region, I never have thought to visit Lyon’s historic center because my friends told me that there is nothing to see in this big city; however, when my friends and I decided to stop for a night at Lyon on our trip to Andorra because one of my friend want to have Lyonnais meal at his favorite restaurant, I decided to see this World Heritage Site city. Walking around in the area near its main train station, Part Dieu, Lyon really looked boring and nothing to see. When I crossed the Rhone to the old quarter, I started to see some nice buildings but nothing really outstanding, I went to see Place des Jacobins and Place Bellecour, again nothing special. I felt disappointed and almost decided to walk back to the hotel, but I thought that at least I should walk to the Saone.

The beautiful view of Lyon along the Saone completely changed my mood, the sight of La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière on the green hill and the row of buildings of Vieux Lyon and La Croix-Rousse were something that made Lyon to be interesting than other French cities especially for La Croix-Rousse that I really impressed since it was really unique to see such kind of urban landscape in France, hilly and lack of organized city design. When I stepped into Vieux Lyon, it was a totally different world, full of narrow streets of Renaissance buildings, truly deserved to be the first place of France that has been protected under the famous Malraux Act. The area was beautiful, it did remind me the Gamla Stan in Stockholm or Italian medieval quarter. I also visit at least three unique “Traboule” which were quite fascinating for their design and funny that every time I came out from traboule, I always met a group of tourists who were reluctant to open the door as afraid to enter a private area. I spent a lot of time walking around Vieux Lyon and La Croix-Rousse and decided to skip Fourvière Basilica, something I always did to skip one highlight to make me want to revisit again.

All in all, Lyon is a really nice city, it may not have grand buildings or imposing squares like Paris, Toulouse or Bordeaux, but Lyon has its own characteristic that really charming and make it unique among other European cities. Actually, if compared with Bordeaux, another French large city that its whole historical center is a World Heritage Site, these two cities are totally different while Bordeaux has many similarities with Paris with stately buildings, large squares, orderly row of buildings and large boulevards, Lyon rejected everything that Parisian love, I rarely find an orderly row of buildings in Lyon, each buildings has different design and height. Its square even in front of city hall has no gilded ornament to show wealth of the city. Lyon offers down to earth French city with more human touched and together with Lyonnaise cuisines, this World Heritage Site is truly a must visit.