Lyon’s museums: extraordinary venues for events

Business Tourism

Last updated date : 03/07/2026

In Let's Meet No. 23, the Lyon Convention and Exhibition Bureau introduces you to two unmissable Lyon museums: the Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Cinema and Miniatures. From dinner beneath the cloister's arches at the former to a cocktail reception amongst the collections at the latter, these venues reveal a different side during private events.

Time stands still at the Museum of Fine Arts

There are timeless places that make the face light up as soon as the feet step through the door. In the busy centre of Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts is a bubble of calm. Lyon’s fine art museum is housed in a former seventeenth-century abbey that creates an immediate sense of tranquility. Its collections
are so many chapters in a wonderful journey, taking us from Egypt antiquities to modern art, including paintings, sculptures and art objects. Then there is the garden that is a haven of inspiration.

This is a place offering endless storytelling possibilities your events. A meal beneath the arched ceilings of the cloister or in the Baroque refectory, a cocktail reception at Terrasses Saint-Pierre, or a conference in the auditorium: each gathering is a chance to have the museum all to yourselves during a private tour, to absorb the creative forces that have shaped our culture through the ages.

Private hire spaces available:

Garden and Cloister: 500 participants for a cocktail reception; 300 participants seated
Baroque refectory: 200 participants for a cocktail reception; 140 participants seated
Auditorium: 176 seats and 4 seats for participants with reduced mobility
Terrasses Saint-Pierre (Café and Terrace): 100 participants for a cocktail reception; 50 participants seated

A peek behind the silver screen at the Cinema and Miniature Museum

While Lyon is famous for its cinema history, Musée Cinéma & Miniature reveals a different facet of the “seventh art”. It explores a hidden side, or rather a side that goes unnoticed. Behind all great movies, there are talented individuals and all the techniques they use to design and produce sets and props, both life-sized and miniature. They help to immerse us in the story and its world, and to elicit our emotions. A little gem tucked away in Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon), this museum also conceals its magic well.

Behind its unassuming entrance, it holds a trove of original objects that is unique in the world. Costumes, make-up art, models, drawings, storyboards and more are staged to recreate cult scenes from blockbusters, cinematic décors that immediately transport you... to the heart of movie magic. You can even see the Batmobile at the museum, right now. After a plenary meeting in the screening
room, and a private tour guided by film buffs (who love nothing more than a movie anecdote, other than nerding out on collector objects), it’s time for cocktails and a stroll through the five floors of exhibition spaces, before ending (weather permitting) on Place de la Basoche, privately reserved for the occasion... just like a filming location.

Up to 150 participants according to layouts and spaces.