Place des Terreaux and Hôtel de Ville

Place des Terreaux is the monumental square at the foot of the Croix-Rousse slopes in Lyon's 1st arrondissement, in France's Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is bordered on one side by the Hôtel de Ville, the city hall, whose 17th-century facade was reworked in later periods, and on the other by the Palais Saint-Pierre, the former Benedictine abbey that now houses the Musée des Beaux-Arts. The centrepiece is the fountain by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, in which four horses appear to plunge forward, drawing a chariot representing the rivers of France. Around the fountain, rows of small ground-level jets rise from the paving and light up after dark, a feature children often enjoy in warm weather. The square is lined with cafés and restaurants with outdoor terraces, which makes it a convenient place for a drink before or after visiting the museum. A look at the facades, the fountain and the church of Saint-Pierre next to the museum takes twenty to thirty minutes. The square is pedestrian and flat, and it sits a few minutes from the Rhône quays, the opera house and the shops of the lower Croix-Rousse slopes. Photographers tend to work in the evening when the building facades are lit and the fountain is illuminated, and wide-angle shots from the museum steps capture the whole composition. Crowds build at lunchtime and in the evening on terraces, and the square becomes busy during the Fête des Lumières in December. Mornings are calm, with market and delivery activity in neighbouring streets. The metro stop Hôtel de Ville-Louis Pradel, served by lines A and C, is about three minutes on foot.