The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière in Lyon was built during the second half of the nineteenth century, completed in 1896, as a votive offering following the Franco-Prussian War. It sits on the same hill where Romans founded the city of Lugdunum in 43 BC, a ridge that has held sacred meaning for Lyon across vastly different eras. The basilica is one of the most recognizable landmarks in France, its silhouette visible from much of the city below, and it draws visitors both as an active place of Catholic pilgrimage and as one of the country's finest examples of nineteenth-century religious architecture.

Late spring and early summer bring the trees to their fullest green and the sky to that rich southern blue, making the climb up Fourvière particularly rewarding in person.