Service area: the Rhône

Lyon

69001, 69002, 69003, 69004, 69005, 69006, 69007, 69008, 69009

Few French cities fit so many kinds of building into so little ground: Renaissance courtyards with open galleries in Vieux Lyon, tall canut weavers’ blocks on the slopes of the Croix-Rousse, nineteenth-century façades in the Brotteaux and new developments at La Confluence all sit within a few metro stops of one another.

Villeurbanne

69100

Villeurbanne is not a suburb of Lyon but a town in its own right, with its monumental Gratte-Ciel centre, its university campus and one of the most fast-moving rental markets in the metropolitan area.

Vénissieux

69200

Vénissieux sets an old village of terraced houses alongside large estates being rebuilt on the Minguettes plateau, and an industrial fringe running down to the Rhône’s chemical valley.

Bron

69500

Bron grew out of a village that became a town centre, ringed by large housing estates, a regional teaching hospital and the Lyon-Bron business airfield, still in operation.

Vaulx-en-Velin

69120

Vaulx-en-Velin comes in two pieces separated by the Jonage canal: an old farming village to the south-east, and a new town built in one go in the 1970s to the north-west.

Saint-Priest

69800

Saint-Priest has kept its village and its château in the middle of a very large commune, where renewed housing estates, suburban streets and one of the widest business parks in the metropolitan area sit side by side.

Décines-Charpieu

69150

Décines-Charpieu stretches between the Jonage canal and the eastern plain, with a village centre, wide areas of detached housing and rapid growth around the stadium.

Meyzieu

69330

On the eastern edge of the metropolitan area, Meyzieu combines a village centre, wide districts of detached houses and one of the oldest industrial estates in the conurbation.

Caluire-et-Cuire

69300

Set on the plateau between the Rhône and the Saône, Caluire-et-Cuire drops towards the Saint-Clair quaysides down steep slopes and flights of steps, and keeps an old town at the top.

Rillieux-la-Pape

69140

Rillieux-la-Pape stacks two towns on top of each other: an old village with the hamlet of Crépieux below, and a new town built on the plateau in the 1960s and heavily reshaped since.

Écully

69130

Écully is a commune of parkland and walls: large properties in enclosed gardens, campuses and discreet residences, where you often pass a boundary before the house even comes into view.

Tassin-la-Demi-Lune

69160

Tassin is built around two distinct poles — La Demi-Lune, dense and full of shops at the gates of Lyon, and Le Bourg, older and higher up — joined by a hill everyone here calls by name.

Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon

69110

Clinging to the hillside above the Saône, Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon drops towards the river along winding lanes, with a village centre at the top and properties terraced down the slope.

Oullins-Pierre-Bénite

69600, 69310

Created in 2024 by the merger of two neighbouring communes, Oullins-Pierre-Bénite strings a lively shopping centre, former working-class districts and residential slopes along the Rhône.

Saint-Genis-Laval

69230

Saint-Genis-Laval keeps a tight old village around its church, surrounded by housing estates, a regional hospital and slopes that are still farmed.

Givors

69700

Where the Gier meets the Rhône, Givors still carries the mark of its glassmaking and steel past, with a tight old centre, Renaudie’s Étoiles housing and slopes that rise quickly behind it.

Villefranche-sur-Saône

69400

Capital of the Beaujolais and a sub-prefecture, Villefranche-sur-Saône lines its Rue Nationale with Renaissance houses built around inner courtyards, left by the merchants who made the town.