Lyon to be savoured slowly between gastronomic stops and boat trips
France's second cultural city with 30 exceptional museums, its new beating heart is the Valley of Gastronomy®, a 620 km artery of taste linking Burgundy to Provence
Crossing the French border into Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes means immersing oneself in a palimpsest of eclectic landscapes where ancient history constantly dialogues with innovation. It is no coincidence that this region has emerged as an open-air laboratory for a new way of understanding tourism, thanks to a vision promoted by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Tourisme, which aims to transform travel into a sensory and participatory experience. Here, the concept of heritage has long ceased to be static and has become a living story, capable of combining the majesty of nature with a craftsmanship that does not fear the passing of centuries.
The artery of taste
The beating heart of this renaissance is undoubtedly the Valley of Gastronomy®, an ambitious artery of taste that winds for 620 kilometres linking Burgundy to Provence. The Auvergne-Rhone-Alps represents its most creative core, with Lyon standing proud as the world capital of gastronomy. This is not a simple road route, but an invitation to lose oneself in the excellence of three regions that have put their products into a system. Along this axis, the creativity of Lyon's chefs reinvents local flavours, starting from temples of taste such as the Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, where sixty producers and restaurateurs offer the best of the region.
A perfect example of this philosophy is the new 'From the farm to the plate' proposal, which allows you to experience a day in the Beaujolais starting from the markets to buy wines and delicacies (perhaps a typical rosette or the famous Saint-Marcellin cheese), enjoy a picnic among the villages of the 'Gilded Stones' and return to Lyon for a cooking workshop with a chef, ending the evening with a signature dinner in one of the 17 starred restaurants or in an authentic Bouchon Lyonnais, where the tradition of the 'Mères Lyonnaises' still lives on between a pike quenelle and a tarte à la praline.
Traditional Crafts
But the identity of this land also lies in its traditional crafts, which open their doors to the public thanks to the 'Entreprise et Découverte' initiative. The French city reveals its industrial and artistic soul through silk: on the Croix-Rousse hill, the district of the 'Canuts' (silk workers), it is still possible to admire the skill of the weavers and get lost among the painted walls. The city is in fact an open-air gallery with over 100 frescoes, such as the famous Fresque des Lyonnais, where 31 historical figures of the city seem to observe passers-by from a trompe-l'œil façade. More than two million visitors a year choose to explore the 460 production sites that reveal the behind-the-scenes of French excellence.
In Vichy, for example, the 200th anniversary of the famous octagonal tablet is being celebrated this year: a unique opportunity to enter the historic factory, discover how thermal water is transformed into an iconic delight through an immersive film and gourmet workshops. Not far away, in Sévrier, bronze continues to resound at the Paccard Foundry, where legendary bells such as the 'Savoyarde' of the Sacré Coeur in Paris have been cast since 1796. Witnessing the casting of molten metal is an experience that combines technique and emotion, a ritual that has been repeated for seven generations.
