The Lyon-St Exupéry international airport (tel 04.72.22.72.21) and the new TGV station are off the Grenoble autoroute , 20km to the southeast of the city, with a 45-minute Satobus bus link to the town centre (50F/¬7.53). The Paris to Lyon trip is actually quicker by TGV, but it's only from the air that you can appreciate architect Santiago Calatrava's design of a huge bird alighting or taking flight from the station roof.

 

Central Lyon has two train stations: the Gare de Perrache on the Presqu'île is used mainly for ordinary trains rather than TGVs, and has the gare routière alongside; La Part-Dieu TGV station is in the 3e arrondissement to the east of the Presqu'île. Central Lyon is linked to the suburbs by a modern, efficient and driverless métro , as well as a new tram system.

There's a Bureau d'Information in the Centre Perrache at the station (July & Aug Mon-Fri 7.30am-6.30pm, Sat 9am-5pm; www.tcl.fr ), where you can pick up a métro, tram, bus and funicular map; it's just two stops on the métro to place Bellecour, where the central tourist office stands on the southeast corner (daily 10am-6pm; tel 04.72.77.69.69, www.lyon-france.com ). There is another office at 3 av Aristide-Briand in Villeurbanne (Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm, Sat 9am-5pm; tel 04.78.68.13.20).

At métro stations or the city transport TCL offices, the cheapest way to buy tickets is in a carnet of ten (68F/¬10.37, discounts for students), or there's the Ticket Liberté , valid for 24 hours (24F/¬3.66). The ordinary tickets (8F/¬1.22) are flat-rate within an hour's duration and limited to three changes using any combination of transport. The métro runs from 5am to around midnight. Many bus lines close around 8pm.