The guide
One hour, and it is the best in the city
The facades along the Saône are pale limestone facing roughly west. For the last two hours of daylight they take the sun full on and turn from grey to honey, with the hill of Fourvière rising behind them.
Nothing else in Lyon does this. The Rhône quays are wider and more modern, the old town is in shadow by then, and the peninsula is flat light between buildings.
So sessions here are booked backwards from sunset, and everything else about the plan follows.
The wind, which is not a minor detail
The valley funnels wind along the water. A still afternoon in the peninsula can be a genuinely unpleasant one on the quay, and it is not predictable more than a day or two ahead.
It does not spoil photographs so much as it spoils the session: hair, dresses, cold, and a general wish to be somewhere else, all of which show up on faces within about ten minutes.
We check the forecast, and every booking here carries an alternative — usually the old town two minutes away, where the streets are narrow enough to block it entirely.
Where to stand
The right bank gives the postcard: water in front, the old town and the basilica behind. It is the frame that says Lyon in one image.
The left bank, immediately below the facades, is where the light actually is. Close work against warm stone, doorways, the ironwork of the footbridge.
Between them, the Passerelle Saint-Vincent gives a few metres of height and a clean line across the water, and it takes about five minutes to use properly.
What it suits
Couple sessions in the last hour of light, which is the single most-booked combination in this city.
Wedding parties passing between a town hall and a reception — this is the standard stop, and it works because it is quick and central rather than because it is undiscovered.
Also portraits against the stone, when the weather permits. Prices are on the rate card.