Lyon sits on two rivers, the Rhône and the Saône, which meet at the southern tip of the narrow peninsula at the heart of the city, and it has been an important place for two thousand years. The Romans founded it in 43 BC as Lugdunum, and made it the capital of the three Gauls, and you can still sit in the Roman theatres on the hill of Fourvière, where plays are held on summer nights. Above them stands the white basilica, visible from everywhere, and below them, the old town of Vieux Lyon has Renaissance houses and the covered passages called traboules, which cut through blocks and courtyards and were used by silk workers and later by the Resistance.
The city grew rich on silk, and across the Saône the hill of the Croix-Rousse was once crowded with workshops, whose weavers, the canuts, rose in revolt in the 1830s. Lyon also has a reputation as the capital of French food. Small restaurants called bouchons serve hearty local dishes such as andouillette, quenelles and salade lyonnaise, with a glass of Beaujolais, and the late chef Paul Bocuse made the city a pilgrimage for gourmets. The Lumière brothers, who invented cinema in 1895, were from here, and the festival of lights on 8 December sets the streets glowing with candles and projections.
For riders, Lyon is a hub, with the Alps, the Massif Central, the Beaujolais and the Rhône valley all within a short ride. The centre is busy, with trams, one-way streets and a low-emission zone that can restrict older vehicles, so check the rules and use a secure car park if you are staying. Fuel is easy on the outskirts, and plenty of stations lie on the ring road. The ride in question visits Firminy, where Le Corbusier built a large cultural centre and a concrete church, which makes the afternoon a tour of twentieth-century architecture.
Leave in the morning, before the commuter traffic builds, and come back in the evening, when the old town is glowing. A glass of wine on the riverbank, with the cathedral lit up behind, is a fitting end to a day.