Lyon Nightlife • A Complete Guide

Welcome to Lyon’s premier nightlife guide.

On this page, you’ll discover the vibrant and varied nightlife scene in Lyon. You’ll find the perfect venue for you and your preferred night out. Whether you want to go all-out clubbing or if you’d like a more laid back dinner and drinks with a view, we’ve got your covered.

Enjoy!

An Intro to Lyon, France

Lyon is the third-largest city and second-largest urban area of France. It is located in France’s east-central part at the convergence of the rivers Rhône and Saône.

Lyon, France
Lyon At Night

Lyon’s all nine districts surround the two major rivers running through the city: the Rhône and the Saône, which adds to the beauty of the city significantly. The most scenic districts are Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) and La Croix Rousse, where the city’s historic sites are located. Lodging in these areas is also walking distance to these sites. This means you can enjoy the premium nightlife entertainment of the Lyon city without the hassle of administrative issues. Near the breathtaking Parc de la Tête, the Tête D’Or district offers a quieter option away from the city center.

Here in this article, we will provide all the essential information about nightlife features at the Lyon City to make your trip to France incredibly memorable including a comprehensive list of the best bars, restaurants, and nightclubs in the city.

The Nightlife of Lyon

Lyon is one of the most attractive and exciting cities in the world, attracting people from all around the globe because of its scenic view due to its geographical location. Nowhere else in the world you can find such an impressive, unique and amazing landscape, with romantic sunsets and heritage sites from history. Along with this, the city has got a wide variety of Bars, Restaurants and Night Clubs in the city to make your nights truly memorable.

The Nightlife of Lyon
The Nightlife of Lyon

We are going to present you here all the information including nightlife activities, fun, and entertainment, etc. you may choose to participate in during your stay at Lyon City. Make sure to give a try to the following options laid in this section to truly feel the city.

Best Bars in Lyon

Drinking in Lyon city remains firmly rooted in the surrounding of Rhône Valley’s ancient wine-growing heritage. Additionally, new-gen addresses have embraced world cocktail culture in style, using Lyon’s long-envied gastronomic know-how and rich bounty of local seasonal produce to create some sensational new drinks and food pairings as only the French can. Try the following best options in bars in Lyon to feel the true drinking culture of the city:

L’Antiquaire

The place offers a moody environment because of Old-time jazz, flickering candles, and friendly suspenders-wearing barkeeps set the mood in this atmospheric speakeasy-style bar. The meticulously prepared cocktails are first-rate and are best sipped slowly at one of the dark wood and leather booths, to give the taste a vintage vibe. You should try Penicillin made from uscotchginger, honey, lemon, and peat whiskey).

L’Antiquaire
L’Antiquaire

Bar Du Passage

Like a remnant from another time, the dimly-lit Bar du Passage impresses with its mural-covered ceiling, stuffed leather armchairs, and vintage jazz soundtrack. The cocktails are a bit pricey but nicely balanced and are truly value for money when compared with the ambiance. Be sure to hit this place up for a great bar experience.

Bar Du Passage
Bar Du Passage

Modernartcafé

Offering a changing art on the walls, an exciting weekend brunch, and various photography, music- and video-driven events make this art bar a linchpin of Croix Rousse’s creative community. Overall, this place offers a vibrant ambiance with great drinking options.

Modernartcafé
Modernartcafé

Smoking Dog

This bookshelf-lined pub in St-Paul is surely a great place to sip a quality brew amid a friendly mix of locals and expats. You should stop in Tuesday nights around 9 pm for the popular pub quiz, held in English and French. It’s also a nice place to watch key sporting matches on the widescreen.

Smoking Dog
Smoking Dog

Burgundy Lounge

It is extremely pleasant to spend an evening overlooking the Saône doing some serious wine swirling and discussing one’s choices with sommelier HervéBaligand. Downstairs is a giant steel bar and tasting lounge; upstairs are thick stone walls, hefty beams, and a cool, comfy, space-station seating area. Bottles of burgundy are suspended horizontally in glinting cabinets – a museum where you can drink the exhibits.

Burgundy Lounge
Burgundy Lounge

Best Bar Restaurants in Lyon

Along with the drinking and boozing scene high in the city, the city has also got some fine amounts of fine dining options for the visitors to admire. These restaurants offer some extremely delicious culinary options in terms of dishes which will impress your taste buds. France’s gastronomic capital is famous for traditional cooking, but a new wave of chefs is now reinventing the classical options. Make sure to hit the following places to enjoy some delicious dishes:

Le Kitchen Café

Chef Connie Zagora and pâtissier Laurent Ozan serve breakfast, weekday lunch and operate the only dessert bar in Lyon. The best seats are the two stools at the kitchen bar, where guests can watch Connie put together a dried duck breast with broccoli, nori (seaweed), clementine and sesame, cauliflower and shitake mushrooms or a shredded pork shoulder with pumpkin and root vegetables.

Le Kitchen Café
Le Kitchen Café

Bouchon Thomas

The restaurant serves a more sophisticated tataki of sirloin or quail and foie gras tart with truffles. The bistro magic into a swinging wine bar in the evenings and the tapas bar is for grignoter (grazing on) tortilla, patatasbravas, and marinated prawns. After opening Restaurant, Thomas 15 years ago, he added a bistro, a tapas bar, a Bouchon and a private dining room, all bearing his name and facing each other on the same street.

Bouchon Thomas
Bouchon Thomas

Les Apothicaires

Despite Lyon’s reputation as the gastronomic capital of France, indeed it is a very welcoming place for new chefs. Diners can have four, five or six courses in the evening or a three-course lunch – oeuf parfait with beetroot, caramelized malt, lemon thyme, followed by whiting, butternut confit, black radish, and XO sauce, and to finish, pineapple, Szechuan pepper with lovage sorbet. A cabinet of curiosities fills one of the walls, along with shelves of homemade pickles, cookbooks, souvenirs from the couple’s travels abroad and antique prints of apothecary herbs.

Les Apothicaires
Les Apothicaires

Le Garet 

This most typical of the Bouchons Lyonnais has a bawdy, jovial, chaotic feel with dark wood paneling, crooked oil-paintings, low-hanging lights, and porcelain piggies as tableware, reminding diners of the origin of most of their food. It suits locals and tourists who want a sturdy meal before visiting the nearby fine arts museum, opera house, and city hall. Cervellemeunière (brains in flour, lemon and parsley), tête de veauravigote (calf’s head with shallots and capers), mouillettes (chitterlings sausages), tablier de sapeur (crumbed tripe) and rillettes d’oie (shredded goose slow-cooked in fat) are all celebrated local dishes, served in challengingly large portions.

Le Garet 
Le Garet

Best Nightclub in Lyon

Lyon, also known as the City of Lights, also has attractive nightlife attractions with endless possibilities for enjoyment. Whether you are looking for a nightcap after dining out or a crazy night on the dance-floor, you will be sure to find what you are looking for and much more. There is something for all tastes, styles, and ages. Each neighborhood has its atmosphere. From nightclubs to cocktail bars, dancing & restaurants to wine bars. Refer our recommendations here and keep the nightlife activities going on at the optimum best night clubs in Lyon:

Selcius Club

The Selcius Club welcomes night birds from Thursday to Saturday evening and offers musical & thematic after works and Drunch & Club evenings at the weekend until 4 in the morning. Music by DJ Aurélien Ronco.

Selcius Club
Selcius Club

Le Boston

Le Boston is one of the most popular nightclubs in Lyon. It is probably due to it’s unique location in the city! Le Boston is located on the famous Place des Terreaux and has become a place where almost every student goes dancing and have a good & quality time. Le Boston is big, the decoration is nice, and there is a happy hour at the beginning of the evening. The music is commercial, but it is easy to go with the flow and to dance after one or two drinks.

Le Boston
Le Boston

L’Opéra Rock

With it’s original name, down the slopes of Croix-Rousse, is the perfect mix between a karaoke and a nightclub. At the beginning of the evening, until 2 a.m. approximately, people come to sing and they are well received, as L’Opéra Rock possesses several booklets with hundreds of songs. From old-fashioned French songs to internationally known pop-songs, they have almost everything. After 2 am, the karaoke turns into a night club, and they play commercial music.

L’Opéra Rock
L’Opéra Rock

Le Bec de Jazz

Le Bec de Jazz is a little bar where you can listen to jazz music as its name suggests, the decoration is old school, and the atmosphere is unique. There are two different rooms, one where you can order your drinks and have a passionate talk with your friends and the other where you can dance next to the famous piano-bar. If you like to swing and dance, you will feel like home in the Bec de Jazz.

Le Bec de Jazz
Le Bec de Jazz

Conclusion

Let us sum up things, here in this article we went through a brief introduction of Lyon along with a brief introduction of city attraction. We also went through different activities and place to enjoy the nightlife. Such activities provide a great source of entertainment for tourists and locals as well.

We then went through a comprehensive list of bars available in the city. These exotic and swanky bars are just awesome and worth visiting. No doubt, Lyon has some of the classic and cozy bars to cater to your boozing needs.

To fulfill your food craving we also looked at a list of bar-restaurants which provide delicious and exotic culinary experience along with a touch of booze. This delightful and amazing combination of food and booze pushes the limits of Nightlife entertainment and adds a great value to your journey. And finally, we explored a detailed list of nightclubs of the city that provide premium nigh-time entertainment for your optimum satisfaction.

Make sure to give a try the above recommendation which will add value to your tour, so that you won’t regret yourself choosing bad options.

Video To Watch To Discover

Does Lyon have good nightlife?

Lyon, also known as the City of Lights also has a nightlife with endless possibilities for enjoyment. Whether you’re looking for a nightcap after dining out or a crazy night on the dance-floor; you will be sure to find what you’re looking for and more. There is something for all tastes, styles and ages.

Which French city has the best nightlife?

Paris, the city of lights, is known for its tasteful nightlife. There is a wide range of cool brasseries and nightclubs where you can spend a charming night with your partner. One of the best nightlife cities in France, it becomes even more lively when the sun goes down

Click the button to discover venues and things to do at night in: Lyon

Keep exploring!