The best time to visit Lyon

12.09.2024 - 20:03 / lonelyplanet.com

Sep 12, 2024 • 4 min read

Anna is a Lyon local who covered the city for our France guidebook. Here she shares the best time to pay a visit to Lyon.

A rare and special thing; Lyon is great at any time of year, like a flannel shirt that works equally well thrown on for a summer evening or layered up in winter. That’s because it’s not dressed up for tourists, but thoroughly lived in, so there’s plenty of events taking place no matter the month you visit. 

Lyon enjoys real seasons. Winter is reliably cold, with daytime temperatures hovering around 4 ℃ (39℉), but many of the days are clear, and the snow capped peak of Mont Blanc can be seen from Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière, the church which crowns Lyon’s highest hill. 

Temperatures soar in summer, and while the average daily temperature is in the low 20s ℃ (60-85℉), it’s not uncommon for the heat to rise to the mid-30s (95℉). However, the numerous urban parks and verdant banks of the River Rhône mean there’s always a shady spot to picnic. Rainfall is lower here than in the average French city, so it’s rare that any trip will be a washout, although May and October tend to be the rainiest months. 

Even if the weather is inclement for your trip, there are enough museums, galleries and restaurants to keep even the most active traveler content. 

Ask a Lyonnais how many rivers there are in Lyon, and they may well tell you “three”, leaving you puzzling over the map to find the third. The third river is garnet red: wine. Beaujolais to the north and the Rhône Valley to the south keep the residents of Lyon watered throughout the year. September is harvest season, and the vineyards around the city teem with life. 

In October, independent winemakers show their wares at the Salon des Vignerons Indépendants. There’s nothing that you’ll recognise from a Carrefour aisle – hundred of winemakers from all over the country attend, and for the paltry entrance fee you can drink your way from the Hauts-de-France to Corsica. Take note: tasting sizes are noticeably larger for those that sweet talk the winemakers. Beaujolais Nouveau arrives in the third weekend of November, celebrated with (almost) as much zest in Lyon as in neighboring Beaujolais, where at the Beaujolais Wine Marathon, more than 20,000 runners charge through the vines, clad in full fancy dress rather than Lycra.

Lyon’s closest ski slope is just 90 minutes away, and some of the finest skiing in the Alps takes only two hours to reach. The Lyonnais know that you don’t have to drop hundreds on a chalet for the week, or ski through a whiteout – you can nip out for the day as soon as the weather is fine, and be back in time for dinner. Skimania offers day passes (transport and ski pass) for as little as €60, or €30 for