What is the Lyon outdoor escape game?
The Lyon outdoor escape game is an escape room with no walls: every puzzle is attached to a real landmark and you work on it from your phone, reading the surroundings and reasoning your way to the answer. Allow about 2 hours, of which 52 minutes are walking the 4.1 km that strings the 10 stops together, and begin on a day of your choosing.
The puzzles sit on both banks: the gravel expanse of Place Bellecour, the Pont Bonaparte with Fourvière hill ahead, Saint-Jean Cathedral and the Temple du Change in Vieux Lyon, the painted faces of the Fresque des Lyonnais and Place des Terreaux with its Bartholdi Fountain. Each puzzle is independent, so no narrative holds the route together, and up to three levels of hints are on hand. The Presqu'île and the Saône quays are flat, which makes the walking easy between one puzzle and the next.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 52 min · 4.1 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Each landmark comes with a puzzle you crack by observing and thinking. No prior knowledge is required.
Look closer
The clues are in carved medallions, painted windows, spires and the statues standing in the squares.
Walk
Google Maps takes you between stops: 52 minutes on foot in all, over roughly 4.1 km.
Take your time
There is no countdown. Call a hint when you want one, stop in a bouchon for lunch and resume later or another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends on a day out
Everyone gets a go at the answer, and no one needs to know anything about Lyon beforehand.
Couples
Crossing the Saône and back with a puzzle at every stop, at whatever pace suits the two of you.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, so colleagues only need a meeting point and a start time of their own choosing.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from the Musée des Tissus to Saint-Nizier Church
10 stops · about 52 min walking · start: Musée des Tissus · finish: Saint-Nizier Church
Play begins in the Ainay district at the Musée des Tissus, then Place Bellecour opens up before the Pont Bonaparte carries you over the Saône. In Vieux Lyon the puzzles take in Saint-Georges Church, Saint-Jean Cathedral and the Temple du Change, and the quay leads on to the Fresque des Lyonnais. The Hôtel de Ville and Place des Terreaux follow, and the final puzzle is at Saint-Nizier Church. Daylight is best, because everything is solved outdoors and rain on the quays slows the pace. Google Maps navigates, the app lets you reorder the stops, and no entry tickets are needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Musée des TissusStart
Lyon's textile museum occupies the Hôtel de Villeroy, an 18th-century mansion in the Ainay district. It was founded in the 19th century by the city's Chamber of Commerce to showcase the silk industry that made Lyon famous across Europe. Its collections span centuries of woven fabrics, from ancient Egypt to French silks.
2Place Bellecour
Place Bellecour is one of the largest open squares in Europe, covered in reddish gravel. In the middle rides Louis XIV, an equestrian statue by François-Frédéric Lemot unveiled in 1825 to replace one destroyed during the Revolution. Nearby, a column carries Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, born in Lyon in 1900, with the Little Prince.
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3Pont Bonaparte
This bridge crosses the Saône between Place Bellecour and Vieux Lyon and bears Napoleon's family name. The present bridge was built after the Second World War, when retreating German troops blew up most of Lyon's bridges in 1944. Stop midway for a view of Fourvière hill and its white basilica above the old town.
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4Saint-Georges Church
The Église Saint-Georges stands on the Saône quay at the southern end of Vieux Lyon. It was rebuilt in neo-Gothic style in the 1840s by Pierre Bossan, the architect who later designed the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. Look up at its slender stone spire, a landmark when seen from the river.
5Saint-Jean Cathedral
Lyon's Cathedral of St John the Baptist was built between the late 12th and the late 15th century, so its Romanesque choir and Gothic façade show the change of styles. Its archbishop holds the title Primate of the Gauls. Look closely at the portals, framed by hundreds of small carved stone medallions.
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6Temple du Change
This building on Place du Change was the exchange where merchants and bankers settled their accounts during Lyon's great Renaissance fairs. Jacques-Germain Soufflot, later the architect of the Panthéon in Paris, rebuilt it in the mid-18th century. Since the early 19th century it has served as a Protestant church, which is why it is called a temple.
7Fresque des Lyonnais
This trompe-l'œil mural covers a whole building on the corner of Quai Saint-Vincent and was painted in the mid-1990s by the CitéCréation collective. Around thirty famous people from Lyon look out from its painted windows and balconies, from the Lumière brothers to the chef Paul Bocuse. Look for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with the Little Prince.
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8Hôtel de Ville de Lyon
Lyon's town hall closes the east side of Place des Terreaux and was built in the mid-17th century to designs by Simon Maupin. After a fire its façade was remodelled by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte, and a relief of King Henri IV on horseback crowns the entrance. On the square stands the Bartholdi Fountain, by the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty.
9Place des Terreaux
Place des Terreaux takes its name from the earth used to fill in an old moat that once ran here between the Rhône and the Saône. The town hall closes its east side and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, in a former abbey, its south side. The Bartholdi Fountain shows a woman driving a chariot pulled by four rearing horses.
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10Saint-Nizier ChurchFinish
The Church of Saint-Nizier, in the middle of the Presqu'île, is named after Nizier, a 6th-century bishop of Lyon. The Gothic building was raised from the 14th century onwards and completed much later. Compare its two spires: they were built centuries apart, the northern one in the Middle Ages and the southern one only in the 19th century.
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Visiter les principaux points d’inter?ts en un apr?s midi : top chrono Hyper interessant, des infos historiques super et 5 a 10 min de marche entre chaque point On peut m?me s’arr?ter a mi chemin pour d?jeuner ou faire les boutiques souvenirs, l’?tape 5 est pile dans le Vieux Lyon