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Home > Travel France > France Destinations > Lyon
Lyon
France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and comprises various overseas islands and territories which are located in other regions. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. At 674,843 square kilometres, France is the world's 40th-largest country after Myanmar. France is a member of The European Union and Paris is the capital of this nation. The sole official language of France is French. Since prehistoric times, France has been a crossroads of trade, migrations, and invasions.
Lyon is a city in east central France. The third biggest French city, it is a major centre of business, situated between Paris and Marseille and has a reputation as the French capital of gastronomy and an important role in the history of cinema. Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Lyon forms the second largest metropolitan area in France after Paris, with 1,648,216 inhabitants at the 1999 poll and approximately the 20th to 25th largest metropolitan area of Western Europe.
Lyon is the capital of the Rhone departement and also the capital of the Rhone-Alpes region. Nowadays the region around Lyon is still known as Lyonnais or sometimes even as the Lyonnaise Region. Lyon's geography is dominated by the Rhone and Saone rivers which converge to the south of the historic city centre forming a sort of peninsula, two large hills, one to the west and one to the north of the historic city centre and a large plain which sprawls westward for the historic city centre. In 1999, the population of the city was 445,452.
Lyon was founded as a Roman colony in 43 before Christ era by Munatius Plancus, a lieutenant of Caesar, on the site of a Gaulish hill-fort settlement called Lug from the Celtic sun god Lugus and dunon hill fort. It is a city with endless recreational opportunities, rich history, and modern day luxuries.
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