Come Alone · English
Just arrived in Lyon or Villeurbanne? This page walks you through your first month: the six steps that unlock everything else, each with its official link, then free places and events where you can go alone and meet people.
If you arrived with a long-stay visa that acts as a residence permit (VLS-TS), validate it online within 3 months of arriving in France and pay the fee that is added to the visa fee: you are then legally resident and can cross the Schengen border again. If your visa says “carte de séjour à solliciter dans les 2 mois suivant l'arrivée”, the procedure is done at the prefecture, not online.
Validate the VLS-TS (service-public R52684) · Long-stay visa (service-public F16162)
Start by applying to Assurance Maladie to open your health-insurance rights: you first get an interim number (NIA), usable for 9 months, which does not yet give you a carte Vitale or an ameli account. The definitive number comes after you send a photocopy of a valid, legible civil-status document (processing time: 9 months). The carte Vitale itself is free: order it from your ameli account (digitised photo and ID) and it arrives within 2 weeks. If anyone asks you for money to get one, it is a scam.
ameli.fr, social security number (born abroad) · ameli.fr, carte Vitale
The carte TCL is the personal, named card of the TCL network (metro, funiculars, trams, trambus, buses, shuttles): €5 when created or replaced after loss or theft, valid for 5 years, and it must be validated at every boarding, including connections. You load subscriptions and 10-trip books onto it. The network has 5 fare zones + 1 outer zone, and your ticket must cover every zone of the trip.
tcl.fr, the carte TCL · tcl.fr, fares and zones · tcl.fr, all tickets and subscriptions
Entry to the 16 libraries is free for everyone: reading on site, events and WiFi need no subscription. The subscription, at the same prices whether or not you live in Lyon, is for borrowing, computers and online services. The Connexion subscription is free for all; from age 26 the Culture card costs €38 a year (€10 at 18–25) and also gives free entry to the 6 City of Lyon museums. If you are not an EU national, bring your passport, residence permit or permit-application receipt.
bm-lyon.fr, registration and prices · bm-lyon.fr, accepted ID documents
Several times a month, conversation cafés run in six district libraries: free, open to everyone from age 16, 1.5 hours led by librarians. No grammar lesson and no level groups, just practice in a friendly setting. Pick a date in the agenda and sign up: it is the easiest place to come alone and talk.
The AVF Lyon Rhône association welcomes newcomers to help them discover the city and make friends quickly, with an international team for people arriving from abroad. Drop-in sessions at 5, place de la Baleine (Lyon 5e), including an international welcome on Thursdays, 10:30 am–12 pm. Then pick an idea from the City's “Sortir et découvrir” portal or from the events below.
City of Lyon, AVF Lyon Rhône · City of Lyon, Sortir et découvrir
Rules change: always confirm on the official page before you go.
Libraries, museums and parks, each with its official page. Hours and prices change: check the page before you go.
A network of 16 libraries where entry, reading on site, events and WiFi are free for everyone, no subscription needed. A good base for your first days.
Open every day except Tuesdays and public holidays, 10 am–6 pm (Fridays from 10:30 am). Collections €8, reduced €4, free in some cases listed on the page. The library Culture card gets you in.
Wednesday to Sunday, 10 am–6 pm. Permanent exhibition €6, reduced €4; free entry for under-18s, recipients of minimum social benefits and non-taxable people, among others, with proof.
105 hectares, one of the largest urban parks in France, open every day of the year; its botanical garden and zoo are entirely free.
17 hectares of green space with multi-sport pitches, a 1,300 m² skatepark, a big meadow for picnics and a belvedere overlooking the city.
Walking routes on Fourvière hill with several viewpoints over the city. Main entrance on place de Fourvière (Lyon 5e), open all year.
Victorien Bornéat presents his essay on how cultural institutions can feel elitist and exclude people, drawing on his own arrival in Lyon. The one-hour talk at Hôtel71 by the Saône is a good fit if you enjoy discussing ideas with strangers afterwards.
Several up-and-coming stand-up comedians share the stage in the first edition of this comedy club night, hosted by Ugo Strebel. Tickets start at 8.99 euros; comedy crowds are friendly and laughing together breaks the ice.
Musicians of any style — rock, pop, folk or soul — each play three songs of their choice; performers sign up by email in advance, while listeners can just come in. Entry is free. Open stages are a classic solo outing, with plenty of chatter between acts.
Professional, private and association dealers bring tens of thousands of singles, LPs, CDs and DVDs covering rock, soul, jazz, hip-hop, electro and more, for every budget. Entry is 3 € (free for under-16s, students and jobseekers). Flipping through crates next to other music lovers is a natural conversation starter.
Geographer Nicolas Jacob-Rousseau of Université Lumière Lyon 2 explains how photographs, including aerial images, serve research in geography, in the MOM's public lecture cycle marking the bicentenary of photography. Entry is free while seats last. A public lecture is a comfortable solo evening with a curious audience.
This is the first edition of a new jam session led by Lazzman, focused on modern jazz, improvisation and effects-heavy grooves. Musicians are invited to join the house players on stage, and listeners are just as welcome. Entry is free, and jams are friendly places to talk to the players between tunes.
Once a month this small venue on the Croix-Rousse slopes opens its stage to singers, rappers, guitarists, bassists, drummers and horn players for a free-form live jam. A drum kit and two guitar amps are provided and you sign up on the spot. Entry is free, and even without an instrument it is a friendly room for meeting people.
The very first edition of a new jam organised by Lazzman at Kraspek Myzik, the record shop and club on the Croix-Rousse slopes. The brief is modern jazz with lashings of effects in the spirit of J Dilla and Terrace Martin, open to musicians who want to sit in and to anyone who wants to listen. Entry is free. «LA JAMALAZZ | MER. 03.02» Start time as published; the end time is approximate. Source: OpenAgenda public agendas via Opendatasoft — Licence Ouverte / Open Licence (Etalab).
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Come Alone → Meet & Mint
Choose something this week from the list on this page — easy to join on your own.
See who's going. If the event isn't in the app yet, tap “+” to add it and gather a group.
Write in the event chat and agree where to meet before you arrive.
Walk in already knowing a name or two — a good start in a new city.
The app · Meet & Mint
Meet & Mint is our app: come-alone events and people to go with. It is not a government service. Many of the events on this page are also in the app.
Meet & Mint: Events & FriendsiPhone · Android
Who else is going?See it in the Meet & Mint app.
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