Your private guide will pick you up at your Lyon hotel at the start of your tour and you’ll begin to make your way along the old city streets. Your guide will give you a brief introduction to Lyon’s gastronomic past explaining how the city’s position at the heart of the European silk industry influenced its food and restaurant scene.
You’ll hear about typical local delicacies such as praline brioche, a sweet buttery bread, and coussin de Lyon, a marzipan-covered sweet filled with chocolate ganache with a hint of curaçao liqueur. Your guide will take you to the best local shops to try these sweet treats and point out some of Lyon’s most renowned restaurants. You’ll hear about the city’s most acclaimed chefs past and present and learn how their influence shaped the development of the city as an international gastronomic hub.
As you wander from one street to the next, your guide will take you to discover some of Vieux Lyon’s famed traboules, the covered passageways that wind between streets and were built to shelter the city’s silk weavers and their precious fabrics from inclement weather.
From the old town you will cross both the Saône and Rhône rivers by bus to reach Les Halles de Lyon — Paul Bocuse, the city’s renowned covered market named after a local chef who was the founder of the nouvelle cuisine movement. The market is home to dozens of food stalls and you’ll get a guided tour and an introduction to some of the best produce on offer from local cheeses and charcuterie to fresh seafood and the most delicate breads and pastries. This is where your tour will come to an end; your guide can leave you to explore the extensive market at your own leisure or return with you to your hotel.