Lyon
Lyon is a big city in the South East of France.
The autoroute du soleil passes through it, so in Summer there are huge amounts of traffic.
- Hitchers should keep in mind that Lyon is known as the Hitchers Hell of France due to the tunnel system in and out of the city. I've personally been caught there more than a few times and hitching is really difficult especially during peak summer season when spots like the one mentioned in the post below have 4 or 5 hitchers in a queue trying to get out. While it is a beautiful city, if you have no real purpose for going there avoid it like the plague. I once saw a piece of road side graffiti that read "Lyon – Nothing ever leaves here, not even night!!" It is very worthwhile time-wise to get a ride that will take you south of Lyon. Thumbs out! --- Fruupp
Hitching Out
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South towards Orange, Nîmes, Marseille, St Etienne
- On Quai du Docteur Gailleton near Rue Franklin there is a bus stop which makes a great place for cars to pull over. It is very close to metro stop Ampère Victor Hugo. There's plenty of traffic heading to Valence and Orange, which is a good place to continue further East or West along the coast.
Quite fast you can get a ride to nearest petrol station, which is situated 12km south - just try hitchhiking with sign "A7 - 12km sud". - You also might want to try from Square Julien Gras.
Getting onto A46 (Lyon Bypass)
There's a big service area on the Lyon bypass (Contournement de Lyon) highway. There are two petrol stations, one on each side of the road. This is locted to the South of the urban area. Directions are:
- Southbound
- A7 – Marseille, Montpellier
- A47 – Saint Etienne
- Northbound
There's one bus going to Communay, the closest village, the bus #179 From "Rond point Darilly" (Métro "Parilly"), but it goes 7 times a day on workdays and 4 times the day on week-ends. there's several stops in the village. You can check out the timetable here. If you missed it there's a bus #39 from metro Venissieux, but goes only until Solaize, 5 km closer to the center on road D307/N7, leading to the motorway. The station is about 1 km south from the interchange. The service-stations are sealed off from the normal road but at least for the northbound spot, you can easily climb over the fence. Finding a hitch here is very easy. If you know how to get here, it is definitely worth the hustle.
Marché de Gros is situated in the very south of the Saone peninsula. Coming from "Rue Casimir Périer" You reach a street alongside A7 with lots of cars going to the the motorway. Vasy there, a lot of stop-and-go. I stood for 2h near the train station "Lyon-Perrache" and then 5min there.
- It's only information I found on the net, i didn't verify it since i was dropped off at the station by someone heading to the city, but got a ride in about 1/2 hour (In Nov 2006) --Daniel 20:21, 13 January 2007 (CET)
Getting onto A42 - Direction Bourg-en-Bresse, Genève, Germany
Take the train or bus (about once the hour) to the village of Montluel. From the station walk direction Pérouges, turn right to direction of Niévroz. You cross under the railway and over the highway. Looking to the left you see the petrol station you are heading for. The whole way to walk takes about 10-20min. See the place here: [1]
Sleep
The parks on Fourvière Hill in Vieux Lyon are peaceful at night and if you are too, no one will bother you for camping out there. It's nearby, but it feels so far outside of the city that you can get a relaxing night of sleep without worrying about police or thieves. It is however quite difficult to find a flat place there.
