Lyon in French, is a city in east central France. The third largest French speaking city in the world, the second largest city in France, it is a major centre of business, situated between Paris and Marseille, and has a reputation as the French capital of gastronomy and a significant role in the history of cinema.
Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Lyon forms the second largest metropolitan area in France after Paris, with 1,648,216 inhabitants at the 1999 census, and approximately the 20th to 25th largest metropolitan area of Western Europe.
Lyon is the préfecture (capital) of the Rhône département, and also the capital of the Rhône-Alpes région.
The city gave its name to the Lyonnais province, of which it was the capital. Today the region around Lyon is still known as Lyonnais (French: le Lyonnais), or sometimes even as the Lyonnaise Region (French: Région Lyonnaise). Lyonnaise Region is an unofficial, popular name, not to be confused with the administrative région of Rhône-Alpes, which is much larger than the Lyonnaise Region.
Lyon is known as the silk capital of the world and is known for its silk and textiles and is a center for fashion.
Lyon is also the international headquarters of Interpol and EuroNews.

• Place Bellecour
  
• Tour métallique de Fourvière (1894)
  
• La Mouche Cattle Market and Abbatoir (1914, 1928), designed by Tony Garnier.
  
• Sainte Marie de La Tourette monastery (1960) designed by Le Corbusier
  
• Saint-Exupéry International Airport (formerly Satolas Airport, 1975), designed by Guillaume Gilbert.
  
• Opéra National de Lyon, renovated in 1993 by Jean Nouvel.
  
• Lyon Airport Railway Station (1994) by Santiago Calatrava.
  
• Cité Internationale (1998), designed by Renzo Piano.
  
• Cathédrale Saint-Jean
  
• Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière.
  
• Basilica of St-Martin-d'Ainay.
  
• The church of Ainay, dating from the tenth and eleventh centuries, is of the Byzantine style.
  
• The doorway of St. Nizier's (fifteenth century) was carved in the sixteenth century by Philibert Delorme.