About Lyon

Lyon (French: [ljɔ̃] (listen); UK: , US: ,; Arpitan: Liyon, pronounced [ʎjɔ̃]; Occitan: Lion, hist. Lionés), also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, 391 km (243 mi) southeast of Paris, 278 km (173 mi) north of Marseille, 113 km (70 mi) southwest of Geneva, and 50 km (31 mi) northeast of Saint-Étienne. The city of Lyon proper had a population of 522,969 in 2019 within its small municipal territory of 48 km2 (19 sq mi), but together with its suburbs and exurbs the Lyon metropolitan area had a population of 2,280,845 that same year, the second most populated in France. Lyon and 58 suburban municipalities have formed since 2015 the Metropolis of Lyon, a directly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of most urban issues, with a population of 1,411,571 in 2019.