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Photo: Arnaud Fafournoux, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
This cobblestone pedestrian street is the only significant remain from the Renaissance in Presqu'île. The name of the street refers to the clothing industry. There are traboules connecting the street to the buildings on the Saône bank. The street hosts very numerous restaurants which are far from being all good.
The Rue Mercière is a street of Les Cordeliers quarter in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon. From north to south, it connects the Place des Jacobins to the Place d'Albon. This street is served by metro stations Bellecour and Cordeliers of the line and by the bus station Jacobins of the line S1. It belongs to the zone classified as World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
The state of this square is typical of the "automobile-friendly" urban planning of the 1960s: it is covered with tarmac, too much so given the reasonable traffic around it. A renovation project is under way, which should give the square a greener aspect. The main interest is the central fountain (1885) by architect Gaspard André and sculptor Degeorges. The four statues portray Lyon-born artists: painter Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864), engraver Gérard Audran (1640-1703), sculptor Guillaume Coustou (1677-1746) and architect Philibert Delorme (1510-1570).
Printing museum
An excellent collection of some facets of printing. The collection features some particularly early works and a reasonable amount of supporting material. Unfortunately, the collection is quite biased towards local Lyonnaise history and thus coverage of printing as an art remains regrettably rather spotty overall. Minimal coverage of photographic processes, weak coverage of typography, zero technical information about later post-physical developments such as postscript and TeX, etc. There is no disabled or child-friendly access (no lifts, and no strollers allowed for fire safety reasons). Budget about an hour and a half if you are in to this sort of thing, 45 minutes otherwise.
Very nice church of flaming Gothic style.
Designed by Gaspard André and opened in 1877, the building has a beautiful Italian-style façade. In the middle of the quiet plaza outside the theatre stands a strange periscope in which you can see rotating geometric shapes, like a kaleidoscope. Those were actually painted in the car park beneath the plaza by the famous artist Daniel Buren and they are reflected by a rotating mirror. To enter the car park and see the other side, take the stairway on your right when looking at the theatre.
Navig'Inter company
A boat trip can be a good way to see Lyon from a different point of view. Boats will take you either upstream to Ile Barbe or downstream to the Confluence. Night trips available on Fridays and Saturdays.
The historical court house, also named "the 24 columns", was built between 1835 and 1842 by architect Louis-Pierre Baltard. It is a fine example of French "neo-classical" architecture. It now hosts only the criminal court (Cour d'Assises) and the court of appeal. The other jurisdictions moved to a new building in Part-Dieu in 1995. The most famous trial held there was that of the former head of the Lyon Gestapo, Klaus Barbie, in 1987. The building is undergoing major refurbishment works.