Lyon

The story of Lyon

Lyon began in 43 BC as Lugdunum, "fortress of Lugus," the Celtic god of light, and quickly became the capital of Roman Gaul, with two emperors (Claudius among them) born on its hill. Its two rivers, the Rhône and Saône, still divide the city into distinct moods.

Renaissance Lyon grew rich on silk: at its peak, tens of thousands of looms clattered in the Croix-Rousse, and the traboules, covered passageways threading through buildings, let weavers move bolts of fabric dry through the rain. Centuries later the same passages hid Resistance couriers from the Gestapo. In 1895 the Lumière brothers filmed workers leaving their Lyon factory and invented cinema.

Curiosities: Lyon is France's self-declared gastronomic capital, its bouchons canonised by the "mères", women cooks who fed silk workers and ended up feeding presidents; and the city's December Fête des Lumières fills every windowsill with candles.