Lyonnais, historical and cultural region encompassing the eastern French départements of Loire and Rhône and coextensive with the former province of Lyonnais.
As a former province or gouvernement of the ancien régime, Lyonnais was bounded on the north by Burgundy; on the east by Dombes, Bresse, and Dauphiné; on the south by Languedoc; and on the west by Auvergne and Bourbonnais. The older Lyonnais comprised the territory dependent on Lyon west of the Saône and Rhône rivers as far as the Lyonnais Mountains, east of the Rhône in the immediate vicinity of Lyon, and east of the Saône north of Lyon. It included the country around Vimy (Neufville-sur-Saône), which had the right to vote its own taxes and so was called the Franc-Lyonnais. The province was formed in the 16th century when Beaujolais and Forez were merged with the older Lyonnais. The entire region was converted into the département of Rhône-et-Loire in 1790 and was divided into those of Rhône and Loire in 1793.
The Rhône, Saône, and Loire rivers flow through this highly industrialized region. The city of Lyon was long a centre of the silk and cloth industries; today metallurgy, chemicals, vehicles, pharmaceuticals, and food-processing are important industries. Cereals, vegetables, fruits, and cattle are the principal agricultural products.
Though it adjoins the Rhône River valley, Lyonnais itself comprises the crystalline uplands of the Massif Central; its average elevation is about 2,300–2,950 feet (700–900 m). Farms in the Massif Central are ordinarily small, though emigration from the countryside has increased the consolidation of farmland. Small farms are owned and worked by families, and adjoining land is often leased. Open fields predominate in the plains. Farmsteads tend to be dispersed.
Roman Catholicism predominates and is particularly strong in Lyon, a major centre of missionary activities. There is a sizable Calvinist enclave in Lyon, and numerous Lutherans have emigrated to Lyonnais from Alsace since 1870. Lyon has a large Jewish community. The regional dialect is rarely spoken. French is spoken with a droning and nasal accent and is interspersed with various local words.