Home › Lyon › Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon - Things to Do at Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Things to Do at Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Complete Guide to Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in Lyon

About Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

A 17th-century Benedictine convent frames the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon on Place des Terreaux, and the place exudes calm authority. Cross the courtyard. Clipped box and cold stone erase the city roar. The building alone justifies the detour. Seventy rooms climb three floors and race through Western art, from Egyptian coffins to post-Impressionist color. Dutch and Flemish 17th-century power hangs thick here, plus French academicians and a sculpture hall that halts foot traffic. Lyon's silk legacy surfaces in the decorative arts, subtle yet unmistakable. Light is the secret weapon. Tall windows pour in the grey-gold Lyon morning. Pale stone bounces it back. No spectacle, just space to think. Locals come back again and again.

What to See & Do

The Sculpture Hall and Cloister Garden

The ground-floor cloister punches the air from your lungs. White marble figures line the arcade. Footsteps echo softly. Beyond glass, a geometric garden shifts with the hour. Rodin stands here. So does Bourdelle. Several Lyonnais sculptors wait nearby, overlooked and overdue for fame.

Flemish and Dutch Masters Collection

Head north European on the first floor. Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt glow with that honeyed Flemish fire. Canvases loom. Step closer. Impasto ridges catch the light like frozen cloth.

French Academic Painting Galleries

Lyon never genuflected to Parisian academic rules. The 18th-century rooms show it: pastels, intimate scenes, decorative flair that feels oddly contemporary.

Egyptian and Ancient Antiquities

Basement antiquities feel cooler. Granite underfoot, painted sarcophagi still wearing ochre and lapis, pocket bronzes that could pass for modern. Reset your eyes here.

Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Rooms

Upstairs, Gauguin, Monet square up to anything in the capital. Gauguin's paint sits thick. Colors run earthier than any reproduction dares.

Practical Information

Opening Hours

Open Wednesday through Monday, late morning to early evening. Closed Tuesdays and some holidays. Summer adds extra minutes. Beat the doors for solitude.

Tickets & Pricing

Mid-range ticket, cheaper than Paris giants. Free first Sunday. Students, under-26s, job-seekers pay less. One pass covers permanent and temporary shows.

Best Time to Visit

Wednesday and Thursday mornings whisper. Saturdays swell after the food market spills over. Free first Sunday buzzes with locals. Warmth trades for quiet. Choose your mood.

Suggested Duration

Three hours skims the crown jewels. Add an hour for Dutch masters, another for Egypt, one more for the rotating show. Café break: coffee punches above its weight.

Getting There

Place des Terreaux puts the museum dead center. Most hotels are a walk away. From Part-Dieu, Metro A to H Hôtel de Ville, three minutes, then cross the square. Vieux Lyon has a fifteen-minute Saône stroll instead. Trams T1 and T2 roll nearby.

Things to Do Nearby

Place des Terreaux and the Bartholdi Fountain
Bartholdi's fountain roars outside. Bronze horses lunge through water. Neoclassical façades frame the spray. Pause before or after. The square rewards attention.
Opéra de Lyon
Across the plaza, Jean Nouvel's glass barrel vault rides its 19th-century stone host. The pairing intrigues more than it jars. Ground-floor brasserie serves a steady lunch.
Musée des Tissus
Lyon's other story is silk. Musée des Tissus lies a short walk south. Historic textiles astound. Learn the canuts' saga, then revisit the Beaux-Arts decorative rooms with sharper eyes.
Rue Mercière and the Presqu'île bouchons
After a morning in the museum, duck into the side streets around Rue Mercière. Lyon's canonical bouchon lunch experience waits. Tiled floors, checked tablecloths, the smell of slow-cooked quenelles and hot chicken liver salad drifts out of open kitchen hatches. It's touristy for good reason. The food is exactly what it's supposed to be. Order wine. Relax. Repeat.
Musée de l'Imprimerie de Lyon
A five-minute walk from the Beaux-Arts, the printing museum occupies a medieval building. It covers Gutenberg-era technology through to offset printing with a specificity that rewards curiosity. Small, manageable, and almost always quiet. This is the kind of place where Lyon's intellectual self-image makes sense. Take your time. The presses still speak.

Tips & Advice

The cloister garden is accessible without paying museum entry. Worth knowing about if you just want five minutes of quiet in central Lyon. Sit. Breathe. Though once you're in, you'll likely buy a ticket anyway. The stone arcades win you over. They always do.
Bag check is free and necessary. The rooms are warm and a coat becomes a burden after the second floor. Drop it. Forget it. Keep moving.
The temporary exhibition programme tends toward the ambitious. Check what's on before you go. The temporary shows sometimes warrant the visit independently of the permanent collection. Plan ahead. Or be spontaneous. Either works.
If the Flemish rooms are crowded, start from the Egyptian basement and work upward. Most visitors do the reverse. You'll often have the northern European galleries to yourself by mid-morning. Enjoy the solitude. The paintings notice.

Tours & Activities at Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Didn't see anything interesting yet?

Browse Viator's full catalog of tours, day trips, food experiences, and private guides in Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.

See All Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon Tours on Viator