The last days of Lyon under the French Revolution... a visit by an actor-guide

Relive the Revolution in Lyon’s rebellion. An actor-guide as a fervent adversary of the Reign of Terror will tell you how the city suffered, and yet survived, a spirit that animates the city still. 

From 69.90€ / adult

Famous scientist, Ampère, will guide you through revolutionnary Lyon and tell you how it resisted the Revolution and almost disapeared

Highlights

  • Experience Lyon as Theatre of the Revolution as an actor-guide explains events
  • Stroll along the city’s historic streets and discover their hidden history 
  • Relive the Lyon Uprising and the terrible repression that followed in its wake
  • See how Lyon is marked still today by this episode in the of France’s past 
  • Understand the Revolution as no history book could ever convey

You will discover

This street tour will guide you, through some of the emblematic streets and places of historical Lyon :

  • Place Bellecour
  • Saint Nizier church
  • Grand Tambour house
  • Place des Terreaux

Beware the street tour stays in the street and never brings you into these places

Complete description

Immerse yourself in the history of the Revolution as Lyon lived it, through the person of one of the players in this stormy chapter of the French nation. As André Marie Ampère, renowned mathematician who lost his own father to the guillotine’s grisly work, your actor guide’s character has a crucial understanding of the danger the city is in. For as the glory days of the French Revolution descended into the hell of the Reign of Terror, Lyon dared to rise up against it. Paris, which governed the country through that terror, in turn condemned Lyon.

“Lyon made war on liberty; Lyon is no more. The Name of Lyon will be erased from the list of the cities of the Republic” So claimed the Paris Revolutionaries. How did it come to this? Ampère will let you in on the factions and the infighting that led to Lyon’s destruction and the massacre of its inhabitants.

Relive the horror and fear of this time, as the guillotine’s swift blade – relentless, incessant– came down on head after head,  Having lost his father to this dread machine and the revolutionary fervor that fired it, Ampère will chill you as he he tells you the turbulent tale of this gruesome episode of the French Revolution in a besieged and embattled city.

See Lyon as the scene of these terrible times, populated by an entire gallery of colorful characters as perceived through Ampère’s keen eye. It is against this backdrop that you will be called upon to distinguish between what is historical fact and what is legend stemming from high flown passions of a town both victim and survivor.

Included

  • A guided city tour with a professionnal actor-guide
  • Group limited to 15 people

Meeting point 

Place Bellecourt, by the statue of Louis the 14th on his horse

Cancellation policy

You may cancel up to 24 hours before the tour departure time and receive a full refund.

Important information

  • Visit duration : 1h30
  • Immediate confirmation

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