Hotels near Confluence District and Musée des Confluences

At the southern tip of the Presqu'île where the Saône meets the Rhône, the Confluence district is a redeveloped former industrial docklands turned architectural showcase. Since 2010 the area has been rebuilt around a marina, waterfront promenades, and a collection of aggressively modern buildings including the orange "Cube" by MVRDV, the green "Euronews Cube" by Jakob + MacFarlane, and the district's landmark: the Musée des Confluences, a deconstructed steel-and-glass cloud designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au and opened in 2014. The museum takes a cross-disciplinary approach to natural history, anthropology, and science, with a permanent collection of dinosaur skeletons, ethnographic objects and meteorites; adult entry is EUR 9, free for under-18s and on the first Sunday of the month. Tram T1 runs the length of the peninsula to the Musée des Confluences terminus in about 15 minutes from Bellecour.

Pro Tip: The museum's roof terrace is free to access even without a ticket and gives 360-degree views over the two rivers converging below - one of the best free viewpoints in Lyon. Confluence is also the city's main shopping mall zone, so weekday mornings are quieter than weekends when locals flood in.