It is about telling the past and expressing oneself on the future of this most shimmering of fabrics. Born under Louis XI, it is under François 1st that the fine story of silk in Lyon begins, with the establishment of the first silk factory in Lyon.

This industry, which was both hard-working and flamboyant, remained for a long time the privilege of the city, the ideal meeting place to treat the cocoons brought up in Ardèche and all over the South of Rhône-Alpes.

Lovers of soft and precious fabrics will enjoy following the guide book. By discovering the Mur des Canuts (Silk workers’ wall), a 1 200 square meter trompe-l’oeil fresco, in the Croix Rousse district; Weaving demonstrations in the Soierie Vivante workshop; the Silk living arts academy and its exceptional collection of looms in La Maison des Canuts and in Lyon museums where the silk is very present.

The Musée Gadagne in Vieux Lyon, which dedicates two rooms to the story of silk in Lyon and the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs, the only museum in the world which proposes 4 500 years of textile history, from Coptic fabrics until now.

It is to be noted that the other outlets of this natural thread are in the manufacture of high technology scientific fabrics, notably for surgery.

As for shopping, offers abound, with factory shops such as La Maison Bouton-Renaud, in the rue Royale, the permanent market of Lyonnais silk in the Bianchini-Férier shop where one can buy brocades, muslins, refined velvet, gold and silver silk.