Lyon

Lyon[c] (Franco-Provençal: Liyon), formerly spelled in English as Lyons,[d] is the second largest city of France by urban area[e] It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, 391 km (243 mi) southeast of Paris, 278 km (173 mi) north of Marseille, 113 km (70 mi) southwest of Geneva, 58 km (36 mi) northeast of Saint-Étienne. The City of Lyon had a population of 522,250 at the Jan. 2021 census within its small municipal territory of 48 km2 (19 sq mi),[14] but together with its suburbs and exurbs the Lyon metropolitan area had a population of 2,308,818 that same year,[7] the second most populated in France. Lyon and 58 suburban municipalities have formed since 2015 the Metropolis of Lyon, a directly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of most urban issues, with a population of 1,424,069 in 2021.[15] Lyon is the prefecture of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and seat of the Departmental Council of Rhône (whose jurisdiction, however, no longer extends over the Metropolis of Lyon since 2015).