Sightseeing Lyon, France

Cinema's glorious beginnings are showcased at the art nouveau home of Antoine Lumière, who moved to Lyon with sons Auguste and Louis in 1870. The brothers shot the first reels of the world's first motion picture, La Sortie des Usines Lumières (Exit of the Lumières Factories) here in one of their father's photographic factories in the grounds on 19 ...»

Motoring enthusiasts can drool over 120 vintage cars (not to mention Hitler's Mercedes and Jean-Paul II's Renault Espace!), 50-odd motorbikes, bicycles and modes of Lyonnais public transport over the centuries at the chateau-museum Musée de l'Automobile Henri Malartre, 11km north of central Lyon along the Saône-side D433. Take bus 40 or 70 to the ' ...»

Dolls of all ages and origins grace the elegant rooms of the Musée de la Poupée, inside a fairy-tale castle 12km northwest from the centre. A vast green wooded park hugs the 16th-century chateau and an electric train takes punters on park tours in summer. The fountain-studded paddling pool makes cooling down on hot summer days great fun.

Remaining spaces home in on hot issues of the future - cloning, genetically modified organisms, global warming and so on. Two auditoriums, a café, restaurants, shop and riverside garden complete the ambitious cultural ensemble, the creation of world-famous Austria-based architect agency Coop Himmelb(l)au.

Maison de La Confluence, with a bird’s-eye view of construction from its rooftop terrace, displays scale models of the area’s ongoing development. Already-completed developments include the unique marketplace-like eating space Rue Le Bec, part of Lyonnais chef Nicolas Le Bec’s expanding empire.

Nearby, the Musée des Beaux-Arts showcases France's finest collection of sculptures and paintings, outside Paris, from every period of European art. Its cloister garden is a great picnic venue. Pick up stylish, art-driven jewellery pieces and other souvenirs in its upmarket Boutique du Musée .

Lovely old buildings line rue du Bœuf, rue St-Jean and rue des Trois Maries. Crane your neck upwards to see gargoyles and other cheeky stone characters carved on window ledges along rue Juiverie, home to Lyon’s Jewish community in the Middle Ages.

The 1942–44 WWII headquarters of Gestapo commander Klaus Barbie now evokes Lyon's role as the 'Capital of the Resistance' (as proclaimed by General de Gaulle) through moving multimedia exhibitions. Temporary exhibits cost €4 extra.

The northern realms of the Parc de la Tête d'Or sit snug against the brick-and-glass Cité Internationale designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano to host the G7 summit in 1996.

Crane your neck upwards to see gargoyles and other cheeky stone characters carved on window ledges along rue Juiverie, home to Lyon's Jewish community in the Middle Ages.

This maze-like museum on tourist-busy rue St-Jean provides an unusual insight into the making of movie sets and special effects achieved with the use of miniatures.

A hidden Croix Rousse gem, place Bertone is a leafy square that doubles as an open-air stage for ad hoc summer entertainment.

The Jardin Rosa Mir is a walled garden decorated with thousands of seashells accessed off a narrow laneway.

This panoramic garden is one of the hidden Croix Rousse gems.