Should i move to lyon

In , Lyon was ranked 2nd in France and 39th out of top cities in the world for its livability, ranked on thirty-nine factors including political, economic, environmental, personal safety, health, education, transportation, and other public service factors. Enjoy a glass or bottle of fresh Beaujolais Nouveau—just make sure you can still navigate the twisting streets to find your way back home! These impressive, large-scale light shows draw three to four million visitors to the city, so it can also be a great time to rent out extra space in your home to festival participants or to join the crowd and be awed by the spectacle.

Our site is reader-supported — by clicking our links, we can match you with a potential supplier, and we may earn a small commission for this referral. Learn More. Affordability 4 out of 5.

The job market As the second richest city in France after Paris with a GDP of 62 billion euro , Lyon is an economic centre for the chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotech industries. Healthcare Before your big move to Lyon, it's wise to think about medical cover for when you're out there. Living costs Although Lyon is the gastronomic capital of France, prices to dine out fall on the low end of the city scale.

Select the size of your move to get free quotes. Family-Friendly : Croix-Rousse, the area in the 4th that originally housed hardworking silk workers, is being gradually renovated, but it still maintains the feeling of a small village within a metropolitan area. Although there are tourists during the day, this area is relatively quiet at night. The 6th is specifically the most chic and houses trendy boutiques and posh apartment complexes.

Depending on the ecolle maternelle , you may or may not be allowed past the yard gate and your presence in the classroom which is full of rows of desks is not required. Registering your child for primary school is relatively easy. They know this but for some reason, they still ask for it. Primary schools do not allow parents inside the school gates. This was our biggest shock. The child is left at the gates and from that moment on, the teacher who has a job for life regardless of ability or personality is in control and the child will know their place.

No attempt will be made to help your child integrate and if they are lonely then they should change, learn French quicker or just get used to it. If your child is crying they will probably be ignored. Grammar is highly prioritised over everything else. Rote learning is favoured highly, there is no art or anything creative and no sport.

Teachers teach exactly what the Dept of Education sends them — no more, no less. It is commonplace for teachers to humiliate children by shouting, ridiculing or ripping out work and throwing it in the bin. The curriculum is not fun and small children will spend extended periods of time, sitting down and being quiet.

ICT is not taught in primary schools and not encouraged by teachers — or certainly not the three schools our three children attended. The word of the teacher here is final and I was shocked to see many parents nodding their heads and agreeing with her. Uniformed learning is key to the French system; a child from the south of France will be studying exactly the same thing at approximately the same time as his or her counterpart in the north of France. Lunch is taken seriously and is a two-hour affair comprising of two courses.

This is fine if your child has an actual illness that requires a specific diet however I have yet to find a Dr who will sign us a letter about veganism. Registering a child for secondary school is a little more complex.

Yeh, go figure. The test is frequently held miles away from the actual school you want the child to attend and is just another opportunity for them to belittle you and prove that the child is not capable within their complex education system and that said child will have to be moved down a year and attend a special school often the one the testers teach at. In the end, after many arguments and shouting matches and after two letters of complaint, our eldest child was finally allocated a place in the correct age group at our local school.

She did however start over a month after the term had started. Physical Education is taught but this comprises of either frisbee, cross county or gymnastics. Humiliation is high from both teachers and other pupils and bullying is almost encouraged by teachers. Foreign children should learn their place and belittling them is clearly the way to achieve it. Subjects are intensely taught, not fun or engaging and there is always a right answer. Homework becomes a very serious affair and tests are rampant.

The marking is mechanically oppressive. Marking is out of 20, 10 is a pass and 14 is a good grade. Test marks become a parental obsession and repeating a year is common. Secondary school children are NOT allowed to leave the school grounds without the permission of their parents.

Yes, they build ten-foot-high perimeter fences with one gate AND employ a man whose sole job it is to police the gate. Students are given a day-to-day book carnet de correspondence to carry around with them which also details their exact timetable for the year, has a photo of the student on it and also has the parents details and whether permission has been granted. I have found schools in Lyon to be the most unwelcoming, cold literally freezing and heartless places.

Many secondary schools do not have heating, are built with grey concrete and look like prisons. It is very sad to see. They are curtailed and micro-controlled at every opportunity.

Homeschooling is currently under consideration by the government as their belief is it creates extremist terrorists. I do not like French parenting. I have found that it varies from one extreme to another. In the early years, parenting is grossly neglectful and indulgent but from primary school onwards, children are totally micromanaged and treated punitively. Children are expected to behave like mini-adults — frequently seen but never heard. Children do not speak out of turn, they do not get dirty, they do not make a mess and they certainly do not throw food.

It does nothing but highlight my views that French society is akin to grooming sheep. The moment you are ill, you are expected to see a doctor and get a sick note. Bizarre, right!? You are also expected to acquire a medical certificate for your child to attend school and sports clubs. Why you might ask? I have witnessed unprovoked French people spitting at Arabic women.

This could be anything from long-sleeved tops to long skirts, not necessarily the hijab or the al-almira. It is awful to watch and I have frequently called out men for being racist in supermarkets and shopping malls. I am of the belief that their behaviour is deliberately intimidating and humiliating and that it needs to be challenged.

Too frequently in France, nothing is challenged, so it is all the more important to bring change. Racism is institutional in France. It is horrible to witness! Lyon hosted Euro recently and there was frequently tear gas used, unnecessarily, and when children and families were present. It can be hit and miss as to what products you find. Choice is frequently limited and oh, did I mention they were expensive? I find that awareness around food in France is low, meat and dairy consumption is very high and animal cruelty is high.

Restaurants frequently never offer a vegetarian option and are reluctant to change. I forget which French newspaper I read that in because my eyes were already rolling in disgust.

Being independent is a personality flaw here so of course setting up your own business is incredibly challenging. What I have found is that people tend to be more willing to buy established but smaller businesses than set up their own. Porto and Braga are both really nice non-capital cities that feel much smaller.

Have you been to the Baltics? Those are also pretty fun :. I would love to come every year just for the Festival of Lights alone. As much as I am not a fan of Paris, I still think everyone should see it. See you in December? That makes me even more proud of my city : Thanks for the few paragraphs and pictures of happiness and nostalgia! Very nice places as well. Sounds amazing! Have a wonderful time! Curious which restaurants you have booked. Who cares about Michelin stars..

I could not agree with you more. Your post captured it beautifully! I just got off the telephone with my wife, who visited Lyon with three of my daughters. They all unanimously agree that Lyon is the bees knees and that we should just get up and move there already. They spoke glowingly of the people, the history of resistance in the city and the art scene.

She described it as San Francisco without the pretentiousness. Maybe you should move there already :. I really enjoyed reading about Lyon. We just moved here on a long term visa and need to explore living there. We are living in Beaulieu sur Dordogne beautiful but sleepy and I am excited to visit Lyon and hopefully move in April. Enjoy — sounds like you are in for a nice adventure :.

I really hope to visit it one day! Hey Ana, thanks for the comment! I own an apartment in Vieux Lyon next to the lit up cathedral in the picture Saint Jean. Great place, nothing else like it. Cool article! How about finding Romance? I never visited Lyon.. Good luck! Lyon is old French and it does mean lion. There is enough symbolism in the city depicting lions. Olympique Lyonnais have a lion emblem badge and there are lion statues outside their stadium.

I just discovered your blog while attempting to plan four days in Lyon prior to 8 days in Paris. I love your guide to a day in Grenoble, do you have recommendations for the must see stuff in Lyon? Thank you! Paris is far better than Lyon for food selection, food sophistication.

Anything else American, Japanese, Asian in general, African, etc. The reason is very simple: more cosmopolitan city with very often people from those countries cooking. And more traveled people who are more demanding.

And it shows. You just have to know how to search for good places : Oh and coffee shops as well, Lyonnais are just discovering the Melbourne style coffee culture with a few addresses while not really knowing the background of that culture, because coffees here never push the concept too far, probably because the population is very France-centered.

Paris has plenty of those, and of much higher sophistication again: Wild and the moon comes to my mind. Never will you find such a deep concept in Lyon, sorry. Small town indeed. With small size come less alternatives, less things to do, a feeling of being cut from the world it is a very French city once again, and pure lyonnais are actually known to be very proud of their origins so much as to be a bit closed.

After 4 years here, it is utterly boring as a college student.